Immortal Memories

A Compilation of Toasts To the Immortal Memory of ROBERT BURNS as delivered at Burns Suppers around the world together with other orations, verses and addresses 1801 - 2001.

The annual Burns Supper, held on or around his birthday, January 25, has become something of a cult in virtually every country in the world where ‘Scottish’ is spoken - and even where it is not. This is an occasion when people gather around a dinner table to give tribute to a Scottish poet who died more than two hundred years ago. It really is an extraordinary phenomenon.

Thus begins John Cairney's latest work focusing on Scotland’s national bard, Robert Burns. To be asked to deliver the ‘Immortal Memory’, the chief toast and centrepiece of the traditional Burns Supper, is recognised as a privilege cherished by Burns enthusiasts the world over. Immortal Memories is an extensive collection of these toasts, spanning two hundred years from the first Burns Supper in Alloway in 1801 to the Millennium Burns Suppers of 2001.