Scotland: The Autobiography - Rosemary Goring

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Synopsis
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Interview

About Rosemary Goring

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Scotland: The Autobiography

2,000 Years of Scottish History by Those Who Saw it Happen

» Rosemary Goring

Viking Adult
Hardback : 27 Sep 2007

£25.00

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Synopsis

Scotland: The Autobiography is a vivid, wide-ranging and engrossing account of Scotland’s history, composed of eye-witness accounts by those who experienced it first-hand.

These include not just key moments of Scottish history — from Bannockburn to the opening of the new parliament in 1999 — but testimonies like that of the eight-year-old factory worker from Dundee who was dangled by his ear out of a third-floor window for making a mistake; the survivors of Culloden, who wished perhaps that they had died on the field; the breakthrough moment for John Logie Baird, inventor of television, and the genesis of great works of literature recorded by Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson and the editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

From the battlefield to the sportsfield, we have moments of glory or disaster, as well as wonderfully readable insights into the everyday life of Scotland through the millennia.

This is living, accessible history, told by crofters, criminals, servants, housewives, poets, journalists, nurses, politicians, prisoners, comedians, sportsmen and many more.

'History caught on the hoof and the wing by those who were actually there – a brilliant selection and guide which should do for today what Scottish Pageant did for us 50 years ago’ Andrew Marr

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Reviews

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Critic Review:

'A compulsively readable, beautifully put-together book.'
The Herald

'Skilfully brought the past to life with a wonderful compilation of eyewitness accounts.'
Tom Devine

'An invaluable addition to every house in the land.'
Sheena McDonald

'Undoubtedly the Scottish book of the year.'
Ruaridh Nicoll

'Is wonderful for dipping into in bed.'
Sally Magnusson

'Fascinating new angle on Scotland’s history.'
Neville Moir

'A book that makes firmer our foundation of knowledge about our own country.' Michael Russell
The Herald

'A wonderfully, opinionated chronological memoir.'
The Times

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Interview

Interview with Rosemary Goring, author of Scotland: The Autobiography

What were the highlights of researching and compiling this book?
Apart from the pleasure of being immersed in the past, it was wonderful to discover writers I'd never heard of, such as the Countess of Nithsdale, who disguised her Jacobite husband as a woman to help him escape from the Tower of London, and to glean insights into Scottish life, such as a schoolboy mutiny in Edinburgh, in 1595, where they locked themselves into the school and shot dead a Baillie of the city.

Who do you think is the most unreliable eye-witness in the book?
I suspect that the memoirs of Alexander Carlyle, being written in hindsight, are more than a little embellished. Carlyle, a minister whose nickname was Jupiter, was regarded by many fellow clergymen as a maverick, a madman, and immoral. He once rode naked across the links at Musselburgh on his horse, and - far worse - consorted with actresses. He was, however, present at several critical historical moments, such as the Porteous Riot in Edinburgh and the Battle of Prestonpans, and his autobiography is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the Scottish character.

If you could have been an eye-witness to a particular moment in history, what would you choose?
I like to imagine myself as an ancient Briton, standing on the Cheviot hills watching an advancing army of glittering ants heading north, and slowly realising that these were not another straggle of belligerent southerners, but the Roman army. Alternatively I would love to have been a little fly on the wall at Riccio's murder, or old enough to have watched Scotland win 3-2 against England at Wembley, after their World Cup victory in 1966.

Please describe a couple of figures from Scotland's history that have particularly inspired you?
Mary, Queen of Scots, for bringing some sophistication and culture to Scotland and standing up to religious bigots; and John Knox, for his fervour and for understanding the essentials of true democracy and instilling the idea that was later caught in the phrase "a man's a man for a that".

What kind of reading experience would you like readers to have?
I'd like readers to understand that there's more to Scottish culture, history and society than drunkenness, football sectarianism, sex in closes and terrible weather, although there's quite a bit of these in the book.