Mackenzie Cash
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Mackenzie Cash is the nom-de-plume of the Unst author Peter Mackenzie Ritch, who was born in Uyeasound, Unst on the 18th of May, 1937, the third of seven children to James William Ritch (b.16.11.1902), a boatman at Uyeasound, and his wife Robina Mary Williamson, (b.18.7.1903, Colvadale, Unst). The Ritch family are descended from Charles Ritch, born 1771 at Rackwick, Hoy, Orkney, who married Mary Herculeson of Snarravoe in Unst in 1796. He had gone north to repair the upper storey of Buness House.
A chronic asthmatic, Peter was largely educated at home, essentially self-taught and driven by an inherent curiosity, which ultimately made him master of many subjects. He left Unst in the late 1950s and worked as a joiner in Grangemouth and Bo’ness, before returning to Unst in the early 1970s, from where he worked as a joiner and labourer for many island firms. He died on the 16th of June 2005 at the Gilbert Bain Hospital, Lerwick, and is buried in Lund Cemetery, Unst.
Although he published widely in The New Shetlander and other journals, and is featured in A Shetland Anthology, Cash's often satirical and surrealist work was not collected during his lifetime. However, his nephew Paul J. Ritch has edited a volume posthumously, entitled A Kishie o Monkeys: an almost vertical phantasmagoria, published in the autumn of 2007.
In his introduction, Paul writes of "... his mastery of meticulous metre and robust vernacular verse. With a wonderful disinclination to conform to the norm, Peter was unique in his ability to turn something extraordinarily original and fantastic out of nothing. His knowledge and use of language and his ability to make you laugh with one well-placed word or turn of phrase, plucked from his vast and vivid vocabulary, left you marvelling in awe at the result. His humour might best be described as nonsensical, traversing the realms of absurdity – but well-penned nonsense can make for an infinitely better read than ill-fashioned logic."
For further details, please email the Pulcinella press at the following address: pulcinellapublishing@hotmail.co.uk
