250th Anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns.

He has many champions, but his reputation is also tainted by associations with drink and womanizing.

The truth is hard to come by – there isn't even an accepted collective works, let alone an accepted biography. What is clear is that he died in poverty, aged just 37, despite being famous for his work. At his funeral, crowds thronged the streets but clearly he had made enemies – he had probably upset many an ego, he had flirted (and no doubt worse) with many a daughter and wife. His own long suffering wife Jean missed the funeral, being heavily pregnant at the time.

His publisher had given him a lump sum of 100 guineas instead of rights. The money was soon frittered away, and even though new poems were published including Tam O'Shanter, Burns never saw another penny.

The allegations of alcoholism mostly seem to have come from people who hardly knew him, and were included in the first ever biography by Robert Heron.