It's Burns Night on January 25th and celebrations will be taking place all over Scotland and beyond. So what do you need to know about this huge Scottish knees up? Here's a potted guide...

1) Burns Night is a supper celebration to honour the witty, raunchy Scottish poet Robert Burns, who died in 1796 at the age of 37 and is know as Scotland's greatest poet.

2) Robert Burns wrote wonderfully moving poems including Auld Lang Syne. He is loved in Scotland because he attacked pretension and was a strong nationalist. 

3) On Burns Night Scottish folk and millions of non-Scots too celebrate the life of Robert Burns with a fabulous supper. Many restaurants have Burns Night menus and friends will get together hosting Burns Night suppers in their own homes. 

4) At a Burns Night supper it's traditional for Scots to wear kilts, for the haggis to be 'piped in' by folk playing the bagpipes and for poems by Robert Burns to be recited. The most popular Robert Burns poem recited is possibly the story of Tam O’ Shanter, who got drunk and was chased by witches. Address to a Haggis is also popular and will have revellers weeping with laughter two hundred years after Burns died.

5) And what do you eat? Haggis and tatties and neeps (potatoes and swedes) and cock-a-leekie soup. Find these and more Scottish recipes here. The cock-a-leekie soup recipe is my own - and if I say so myself, it's marvellous. I'll be serving it up on Saturday night.

I have to admit that the lovely picture of me and a haggis comes courtesy of clever scotland.org who've devised a web solution that'll have you reciting 'Address to a Haggis' in seconds. See me miraculously reciting it here and then get yourself reciting it too. Happy Burns Night one and all!