Norman Alexander MacCaig was born in Edinburgh on 14 November 1910. His father was an Edinburgh chemist and his mother hailed from the island of Scalpay. The Highland background that he inherited from his mother and the Gaelic culture that he encountered during visits to her family had an enduring influence on MacCaig and his work. He was educated at the Royal High School in Edinburgh before going on to study classics at the University of Edinburgh from 1928 until 1932. Norman Alexander MacCaig was a Scottish poet and teacher. His poetry, in modern English, is known for its humour, simplicity of language and great popularity.

After graduation from the University of Edinburgh, MacCaig held various teaching positions, mostly in Edinburgh. His early published works, which he later disavowed, were Far Cry (1943) and The Inward Eye (1946). In Riding Lights(1955). He considered life on a small scale in a number of volumes of verse, including The Sinai Sort (1957), A Common Grace(1960), A Round of Applause (1962), Measures (1965), Rings on a Tree (1968), and A Man in My Position (1969). A volume of his collected poems was published in 1985. In 1986, he has been awarded the Queen’s Medal for Poetry. He died in Edinburgh in 1996.