Robin Jenkins

John Robin Jenkins OBE (11 September 1912 – 24 February 2005) was a Scottish writer of 30 published novels, the most celebrated being The Cone Gatherers. He also published two collections of short stories.

John Robin Jenkins was born in Flemington near Cambuslang in 1912 to Annie (née Robin) and James Jenkins, spirit salesman. In 1919, his father died after serving in the trenches during World War I and his mother worked in domestic service to support her children.

He won a bursary to attend the Hamilton Academy, then a fee-paying school. The theme of escaping circumstances through education at such a school was to form the basis of Jenkins's later novel Happy for the Child (1953). Winning a scholarship, he subsequently studied literature at the University of Glasgow, graduating in 1936. During the World War II he registered as a conscientious objector and was sent to work in forestry in Argyll (forestry work would re-appear in The Cone Gatherers). Upon release of his first novel, So Gaily Sings the Lark (also derived from his conscientious objector experience) in 1950, he adopted the pen name 'Robin Jenkins'.

In the early years of his writing career, Jenkins worked as an English and history teacher. In the 1950s, he taught at Riverside Senior Secondary in Glasgow's East End and later moved with his family to Dunoon where he taught at Dunoon Grammar School. He spent four formative years at the Gaya School in Sabah, Borneo, living there with his wife May and their children. Before that, he had held British Council teaching posts in both Kabul and Barcelona.

His best-known novel, The Cone Gatherers, is based on his forestry work as a conscientious objector and is often studied in Scottish schools. While The Cone Gatherers has been criticised as being devoid of any real sense of place, other novels such as The Thistle and the Grail, his 1954 football story, paint vivid pictures of more accessible settings. His writing typically touches on many themes, including morality, the struggle between good and evil, war, class and social justice. Just Duffy is another of his novels which focuses on such themes, in a style which has been compared to that of the earlier Scottish writer, James Hogg.

Jenkins was awarded the OBE in 1999 and in 2003 received the Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun prize from the Saltire Society for his lifetime achievement. His portrait, by Jennifer McRae, is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland. The Robin Jenkins Literary Award has been established in his name.

Robin Jenkins died in 2005, aged 92; his novel The Pearl-fishers was published posthumously in 2007.