I dare say many Scots won’t like what I’m about to say, but I’m a huge fan of William McGonagall. There are some great Scottish bards — Sorley MacLean is one of my favourite poets. But McGonagall is hilarious in ways that make me smile from ear to ear. It’s a pure kind of joy from verse that in my opinion makes him a very clever poet indeed.

When I was a teacher, telling kids about rhythm and rhyme and story, I used to refer to his poems all the time. His work is a really good way into the basics of the subject and I think poetry should be accessible and fun, especially at that age.

The bathos at the heart of his work is a hugely underrated facet of his talent. In my mind, he’s got more children involved in poetry than a number of other more respected poets.

He’s not the great cultural icon of Scotland, of course, but he definitely deserves more praise than he gets and not even a fraction of the scorn his work receives.

My love of McGonagall probably comes from my grandmother, a fine woman from the Hebrides called Helen MacDonald, who was a great fan and used to recite his work in her fantastically lyrical North Uist accent. Hearing her recite The Tay Bridge Disaster was a great treat for me. I have some happy memories of sitting there rapt as she recited verse after verse.

The cult of McGonagall, if that’s the right word, was resurrected by Spike Milligan.

He played a character called McGoonagall in The Goon Show. I love Milligan’s readings of McGonagall — nobody does it better than he — I even have a video of him doing them.

But he didn’t laugh at McGonagall. Some of it is laughable, of course, but it is important not to laugh at McGonagall’s skills as a poet.

It isn’t as easy to do what he does with words as everybody thinks and it’s certainly more than mere doggerel. It is contemplative and poignant and gets right to the heart of the matter. And that is what good poetry is all about.

Gervase Phinn will appear at the Borders book festival in Melrose on June 18. For tickets, call 0844 357 1060 or visit www.bordersbookfestival.org

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