In May 1927 Hugh MacDiarmid wrote to the leading writers of his day in Scotland and invited them to join him in establishing a Scottish Centre of International PEN. Neil Gunn, Edwin and Willa Muir, Naomi Mitchison, and R.B. Cunninghame-Graham among others responded to this typically bold assertion of Scotland's place in the world. Thus Scottish PEN was born. Since then it has vigorously promoted the founding principles of International PEN, campaigning consistently for writers' freedom of expression above all, but also for internationalism, for the centrality of literature in world culture, for imprisoned writers and other important causes.

One issue which has been especially dear to its heart has been PEN's support of minority languages. With two of its own, and with a dominant linguistic neighbour, Scottish PEN has made common cause with other language groups such as the Catalans and the Basques to gain recognition and support for these endangered tongues.

Scottish PEN has since represented Scotland at every International Congress, often at times when Scottish letters did not have such a high international profile as they have today. The Scottish Centre has also hosted three conferences itself, the most recent in 1997 which attracted 350 delegates to Edinburgh. It also promote its activities through Scottish events, most notably at the Edinburgh Book Festival. Scottish PEN now has almost 250 writer-members, and we recently opened our first office in the Writers' Museum in Edinburgh's Royal Mile. Our Honorary President is Edwin Morgan and amongst our Honorary Members are several other eminent Scottish literary figures as well as Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka.