Ian^^^MacPherson Ian Macpherson was a Scottish novelist. He was born in Forres but moved to the Mearns, and was educated at Laurencekirk Academy, Mackay Academy and Aberdeen University. After two years of lecturing at the University, he gave it up to do a multitude of odd jobs, finally taking a farm on the edge of the Dava Moor. His first novel Shepherd's Calendar was published the year before Sunset Song. In the next five years he produced three further novels, including Land of Our Fathers (1933), and Pride in the Valley (1936), which are set in Speyside. His last book, Wild Harbour (1936) is also set in the Highlands but it tells the story of a world destroyed by a future war, forebodings of which were already discernible in Europe. Macpherson was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1944.