For nearly twenty years, Alan Bissett – award-winning playwright and novelist from bonny Falkirk – has been gracing Scottish stages with his unique blend of wit, patter and performance. Following the controversial documentary about Robert Burns he presented on BBC Scotland in 2020, Alan talks to our ‘virtual’ BIG LIT audience about the complex and contradictory psychological elements which made up Scotland’s bard. The mythologising of Robert Burns, he argues, has overtaken the reality of him, as a flawed, sometimes selfish and other times vulnerable human being, whose genius and political radicalism often stood in stark contrast to his ability to cause chaos in his personal relationships.  A BIG LIT ‘health warning’. Rabbie’s language was often more than a little fruity!