Another American reviewer found that variety a cause for celebration: 'In a time of too much plain and too often poverty-stricken verse, Hutchison's poetry looks and sounds bravely alive, colourful and crafted'. Underlining this positive reception across the Atlantic, the poet Robert Creeley said: 'Sandy Hutchison's poems read brightly, with a fine economy and precision. There is humor and warmth, an ear for clear edges of sound, and a pace that can hold all together'. These responses were echoed in the UK when "The Moon Calf" and the pamphlets "Epitaph for a Butcher" and "Sparks in the Dark" were published after Hutchison's return to Scotland in 1984. Gavin Ewart found the work: 'Sharp, dark, funny - and with more vigour than almost all those usually singled out for praise'. Writing in "Lines Review" the poet George Bruce declared: 'There is no questioning [his] verve, inventiveness and versifying skills. There's been nothing quite like this since Sidney Goodsir Smith's "Under the Eildon Tree". Hutchison's poems ...are in the same witty, brio tradition'.

Singling out "An Ounce of Wit to a Pound of Clergy" - which is the opening poem in the collection "Carbon Atom", and was published as a pamphlet by Gael Turnbull - Ian Hamilton Finlay said: 'The Hutchison piece is fascinating to me ...really good, energetic, knotty, interesting'. Gael Turnbull added his own praise when invited to comment on one early draft of "Scales Dog" by writing: 'There are a dozen or so poems in the collection which register for me as having a totally unique quality, a momentum and richness, an energy and an edge, quite unlike anything I know written by anyone else'. Recently, Hutchison's work has sparked a response from a broader audience, and he is recognised by contemporary writers as a poet whose work has cut its own channels gradually, and is steadily gaining in reputation. "Scales Dog" is a book which ranges widely with invention and delight. It is distinctively Scottish in some respects - but the appeal is international. It has depth and humour to carry its readers all the way through.

About the Author
Alexander Hutchison was born and brought up in Buckie, a fishing town on the north-east coast of Scotland. He has worked on and off in universities, including 18 years in Canada and the USA, though he gave up being a literary academic some time ago. As a poet (and occasional translator) he writes in Scots and English. Currently he lives in Glasgow. Based on recent experience he has decided that while wishful thinking doesn't do it, a proper determination can make the cosmos perk up and take a bit of notice. "Mr Scales Walks His Dog," an underground perennial, was composed in the early seventies and drew praise from Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Michael Ondaatje.