Study claims Robert Burns had a 'Mystery editor'

A new study by Prof Nigel Leask has claimed that Robert Burns might have used someone with the initials 'WR' to edit all his early work.

Prof Leask said that WR was given the task by Burns to read through his commonplace book and choose which works were good enough to go into print and this resulted in the publication of the Kilmarnock Volume of Poems in 1786, the BBC reported.

However, they don't know who WR was, a man or a woman but suddenly Burns was launched from obscurity as a tenant farmer in Ayrshire to the most famous poet in Scotland, he added.

Scotland's national bard also worked with the 'figure in the margins' to help Burns achieve public recognition but it was never identified.

The findings will be discussed at the inaugural World Congress of Scottish Literatures (WCSL) organized by Glasgow University.