Veteran bagpipe player Jock Maclean is always in demand during January.

For Jock, who will be 82 in March, helps Sassenachs in Sussex celebrate Burns Night in traditional style.

This year, he has had so many inquiries to play at tributes to Robert Burns that he has had to pass some on to his friends.

Fans of the man dubbed the Bard of Scotland celebrate his birthday with special lavish suppers featuring readings of his works and plates of haggis served with mashed turnip and potato, known north of the border as neaps and tatties.

And, of course, the meal is always washed down with a wee dram of Scotland's best-known export.

Jock, of Deeside, Fishbourne near Chichester, will be putting on his kilt and playing the pipes at four Burns Night events between now and January 29.

Two are being staged by Lions clubs, one by a school's parent and teacher association and one by a masonic lodge.

Burns Night itself falls on January 25 and Jock said its popularity is steadily increasing year after year.

He said: "The nights are great fun and a lot of organisations use them to raise money for charity.

"I will start a typical Burns Night by playing as the guests come in and then I will play a very famous tune by Burns called A Man Is A Man For All That.

"I will then play the pipe as the haggis goes into the dining room, as someone carries it from the kitchen.

"Someone will address the haggis using words written by Burns and then the person who has performed the address, myself and the person carrying the haggis will each be handed a glass of whisky for a toast before I play the pipe as the meal goes back to the kitchen for it to be served."

Jock, who first learnt to play the bagpipes 73 years ago, hails from just outside Edinburgh but has been living in Sussex since 1956.

The retired painter and decorator also plays the pipes at weddings and parties, but January is always his busiest month.

Jock, who always has a haggis in his fridge, is also a huge fan of Burns.

He said: "He was a very down-to-earth and a true working man.

"He seemed to be able to write a poem about anything he looked at from flowers to a very famous poem he wrote about a mouse he saw in a field."

Jock's real name is Charles. But, as he says: "Like every Scotsman, everyone calls me Jock."