BBC Scotland’s Burns Archive

I confess, I’ve never been a huge fan of Robert Burns and too often I find him associated with the worst excesses of rabid nationalism.  However, I love this.

BBC Scotland, along with the University of Glasgow and 66 of the most successful Scots in performing arts, have recorded all 717 of Robert Burns works and made them available online.  Like the densest of Shakespeare, much of the poetry only really comes alive when read out loud and this site is a revelation. 

As well as HRH The Prince of Wales (and more relevantly, for pedants, the Duke of Rothesay and Earl of Carrick) and Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, the readers include: Robert Carlyle, Denis Lawson, Robbie Coltrane and Annette Crosbie.

I particularly liked Robert Carlyle’s spartan reading of Thou Gloomy December