I never cease to sing the praises of the online Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (subscription required, but most public libraries have one...in fact now anyone can join any public library anywhere, if a local authority is too mean to subscribe, all one need do is join another that is less short-sighted).
The new lives for January are an interesting batch. Among better known entries such as that for Muriel Spark, or Roger Keith Barrett, or Syd as he was better known, one can find Macsween, John Angus (1939–2006), haggis manufacturer. I shall be eating one of his haggises on Burns night.
