Handful of Earth is the fifth solo studio album by Scottish folk musician and singer Dick Gaughan, released in 1981 by Topic Records.

The album was Gaughan's first after spending several years largely avoiding playing music while regaining his health following a mental breakdown in 1979.

[4] After Gaughan left the band Five Hand Reel towards the end of 1978, he started having on-off bouts of depression and mental illness which came to a nadir in 1979 when he had a total breakdown.

Gaughan felt the 'inevitable' result of his touring life, such as unhealthy living and heavy alcohol consumption, had caught up with him, and as such he spent the following two years doing very little but focusing on becoming healthier again, aside from the occasional short European tour and contributing to the collaborative folk compilation Folk Friends 2 (1980),[5] which contains seven solo or collaborative Gaughan songs.

[6] Prior to his breakdown, the 1979 general election was won by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party with a majority in England but a minority in Wales and Scotland.

This followed the Scottish devolution referendum by two months and, according to Gaughan, "people in Scotland, particularly on the Left, were reeling under the economic consequences of the Thatcher strategy for solving inflation by crashing the economy and creating mass unemployment.

[5] "Now Westlin' Winds" is another traditional track, which Gaughan learned from ex-miner Georgie Hamilton,[5] and contrasts the picturesque, pastoral imagery of nature with the "slaughtering guns" of man.

[5][8] Meanwhile, the first part of "Scojun Waltz/Randers Hopsa" was written by Gaughan one morning in Andy Irvine's kitchen while the two worked on Parallel Lines, and was considered by Gaughan to "prove that Cajun music originated in Leith," given that he felt the track possessed both a Cajun and Scottish sound, while the second part is a traditional track in the Danish dance style 'hopsa'.

Clive Pownceby of The Living Tradition wrote that the release of the album was "a shaft of light through some pretty turgid folk times and [marked] Gaughan's first full emergence as a premier league player.

"[21] In a contemporary review, English Dance & Song magazine wrote that what distinguishes Gaughan as a performer is his "consistent choice of good, not to mention committed, material.

[23] Fret magazine wrote: "The instrumentals and songs in this collection fully live up to Gaughan's handsome reputation, and they grow richer with every listening.

"[15] Writer Martin C. Strong was favourable towards Handful on Earth in The Great Rock Discography, noting that it explicitly espoused Gaughan's staunch socialist political views.

[19] Andy Irwin of Mojo wrote that Handful of Earth saw Gaughan take "the traditional song form to fresh heights of intensity and stirring power," and wrote that it "remains his masterwork, turning well-known ballads like 'Erin-Go-Bragh' and 'Both Sides of the Tweed' into passionate Scottish anthems and restoring politics to the front line of British folk music with 'Workers Song' and Leon Rosselson's emotive story of the diggers' revolt 'The World Turned Upside Down'.

"[9] The positive critical reception reflects what Billboard noted as the album's passionate reputation among Celtic music fans around the world.

"[12] Alasdair Roberts also considers the album to be one of his favourites,[17] while June Tabor said that "Dick gets inside a song like no one else and proved himself a great singer.

[9] In the book Hang the DJ, John Williams ranks the album at number 2 in his list of "Ten Classics from the British and Irish Folk Revival.