THE journalist and staunch Scottish nationalist Michael Grieve, who

was the son of the poet Hugh MacDiarmid, has died after a long battle

with throat cancer. He was 63.

Mr Grieve, who co-edited a book of his father's poetry, The Hugh

MacDiarmid Anthology, died at his home in the West End of Glasgow early

yesterday. He is survived by his wife, journalist Deirdre Chapman, and

three sons.

His fight against throat cancer began 10 years ago when he underwent a

laryngectomy, later learning to use oesophageal speech to communicate.

The cancer recurred about three years ago.

Tributes to Mr Grieve -- who worked for the SNP, newspapers such as

the Daily Record and Daily Express, and Scottish Television -- were paid

yesterday by leading poets and close friends Norman MacCaig and Sorley

MacLean, and by writer Alan Bold, who wrote a biography of McDiarmid

with the help of Mr Grieve.

Norman MacCaig, who is now 84 and lives in Edinburgh, said: ''I am

very sad to learn of Mike's death. We were good friends for many years

and I admired him because of the way he fought against his illness and

because he was a man who spoke his mind -- you always knew what he was

thinking.''

Sorley MacLean, who is 83 and lives on Skye, said: ''He had a very

independent mind and was very direct and I had a very high regard for

him. He had a great sense of loyalty to Scotland and was a man of

courage and independence.''

Alan Bold, who won the McVitie Prize for Scottish writing in 1989 for

his biography MacDiarmid, said Mr Grieve was a ''pugnacious and lovable

character''.

Mr Bold said Mr Grieve loved Scotland and once went to prison to prove

it -- referring to his spell in Saughton prison in Edinburgh in the

early 1950s after refusing to do National Service on nationalist

grounds, claiming any war he might be called to serve in would be

England's war.

Mr Bold said: ''In 1970, I debated with him in Aberdeen University --

he speaking up for an independent Scottish state, me for the status quo.

He was his own man and persuaded me that his vision of Scotland was

inspired by more than his old man's verse.''

Tributes to Mr Grieve were also paid by the Scottish National Party,

where he was the party's vice-convener for publicity from 1979 to 1981.

Mr Grieve's funeral is to be held at Glasgow Crematorium in Tresta

Road, Maryhill, on Wednesday.