“I think the film is excellent – it is good to have uncovered those early days and put them into perspective– the perspective of the future in fact.” – Sue Swan

Due for release in September/ October 2025, running time c. 55’, The Boat in the Writing Room tells the story of an overlooked but transformational phase in the early career of the renowned Scottish poet, artist and landscape designer Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006).

The year that Ian Hamilton Finlay and his family spent at Gledfield Farmhouse in Ross-shire (now Sutherland) was a vital transitional stage in his dynamic career. Able at last to live again in the countryside, he now had space to bring his work into three-dimensional form. There too, his collaborative method became established, central to his later career, and he began to move definitively into classicism. During this period, with his partner Sue Finlay (now Swan), he first began to create a garden, forgotten precursor of the celebrated Stonypath, Little Sparta.

The wall-poems and constructions Finlay created at the site, successful in their own right, pointed the way towards his later work. Having left Edinburgh for Gledfield in May 1965, the couple lived there until June 1966, their son, Alec, being born in March. By October they were at Stonypath, and the rest is history.

Featuring contemporary photographs of life and work at Gledfield farmhouse, many previously unseen, the filmprovides a unique sense of its appearance at that time. In 1966 Finlay removed his wall-poems and other installations after a dispute with the landlords. The traces that remained, the discovery of which helped prompt this project, have now been erased by redevelopment. Along with other early landscapes, of Perthshire and Orkney, Stonypath is shown as it looked in 1966, and the garden at Little Sparta as it is now.

With contributions from Sue Swan, early collaborators Michael Hamish Glen of The Salamander Press, and artist and landscape architect Peter Lyle, and not least the eminent critic and historian Stephen Bann, Finlay’s friend and “preferred commentator” (Alec Finlay), the film evokes in detail the Gledfield era, and demonstrates its significance in the poet’s creative development.

Written and presented by Finlay biographer Alistair Peebles and directed by Michael Lloyd, The Boat in the Writing Room is an independent, educational co-production by flytingfilms and Brae Editions. A not-for-profit film, any proceeds derived from screenings will be donated to the Little Sparta Trust. Support received from other organisations and individuals is acknowledged within, but gratitude is mentioned here in particular to the Estates respectively of Ian Hamilton Finlay and Jonathan Williams, and to Gledfield Highland Estate.

“I found the technical quality was excellent, and the coverage really satisfying, with a wonderful range of contri-
butions that really expanded the scope of the narrative in many ways.” – Stephen Bann

“Fresh and engaging – a delightful and very penetrating, scholarly, film which reflects so well Ian and all he means
to us and to the wider world.” – Michael Hamish Glen

“It is a huge achievement. You’ve made a great film around a really important bit of research and you personally do a wonderful job of presenting Ian to the world. I learned a lot.” – Richard Ingleby

“I like the film immensely. The ‘resolution’ interesting, as Sue comments, how sunny was the primordial garden, lost now except for your archeology, and Stephen Bann’s.” – Tom Meyer

Screenings:

About:
flytingfilms.com | sourinbrae.com/about/

Contact:
Michael Lloyd – flytingfilms@btinternet.com
Alistair Peebles – brae.editions@pm.me