It’s publication a few years after Lanark (1981) demonstrates a shared commitment to boosting people’s hopes following the political defeat of the 1979 referendum. Both works envision imagined realities to the bleak historical events following the failed devolution project,

portraying the potential of Scotland’s future(s) and histories through speculative genres. Lanark’s final chapter famously showcases an apocalyptic scene which seems to have beeni avoided or, at any rate, postponed as the tide starts ‘ebbing back down the slope of the road’ and

back to the river it flowed from’ (Gray 1981: 557-558). As soon as the tide recedes, Lanark, ‘a slightly worried, ordinary old man but glad to see the light in the sky’ finally sees ‘the sun coming up golden’, the novel closing with an ordinary act of appreciation which shows

his sensitivity toward the environment and hope for rebirth (ibid.: 558-560). Morgan’s collection similarly delivers artistic alternatives to the bleak political realities of Thatcherite Britain, establishing the poet’s nationalist and independentist voice. Morgan juxtaposes

images of impending disaster to carefully crafted glimpses of hope in the horizon, prioritising a cautiously optimistic view of future Scotland(s) where creativity and community prosper. In ‘A Golden Age’, in fact, ‘The bougainvillea millenniums/ may come and go, but then in