A Scottish Journey

Personal Impressions of Modern Scotland

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Pub Date 30 Oct 2018 | Archive Date 12 Dec 2018

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Description

'Scotland as I saw it on this journey is vibrant and exciting and very much alive, a tartan patchwork of the past, present and future of the country woven together by all those people who have ever called it 'home' and all the others who will.'

James McEnaney sees Scotland as a 'complicated and conflicted place' that needs disruption of the status quo. He presents the country as he found it on his journey – struggling with contemporary mistakes and historic wrongs, but also bustling with energy and expectation, ultimately offering glimpses of the better, brighter future which might just be on the way.

'Scotland as I saw it on this journey is vibrant and exciting and very much alive, a tartan patchwork of the past, present and future of the country woven together by all those people who have ever...


Advance Praise

'Stunning descriptions of the Scottish landscape blasted with snow and ice serve as the steely backdrop of this vital conversation and guides the narrative through the social, economic and political discussions inspired by locations throughout the country. Despite laying all of Scotland's problems bare, McEnaney wraps up his journey with a note of infectious hope for a better future, the turning of the last pages igniting a fire in your belly and a desire for change.' Chiara Bullen, Commonspace
'Stunning descriptions of the Scottish landscape blasted with snow and ice serve as the steely backdrop of this vital conversation and guides the narrative through the social, economic and political...

Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781912147427
PRICE £9.99 (GBP)

Average rating from 1 member


Featured Reviews

A young man is inspired by the route taken by the poet Edwin Muir (described in Muir’s ‘Scottish Journey’) nearly a century before from Edinburgh to Orkney to make a broadly similar journey, by motorbike, stopping at many of the same places to consider how modern Scotland differs from the Scotland of the 1930s. I haven’t read Muir’s book and wonder how long he took and how long he stayed in each area. With only 10 days to complete not only the Edinburgh to Orkney leg but also the trip back to Edinburgh, and at the mercy of good old Scottish weather, James McEnaney cannot often afford more than the briefest glimpse of his surroundings as he speeds along. He has also arranged his overnight stops in advance, mostly in the homes of friends or friends of family so he has no easy way to deviate from his itinerary without putting people out. I began to expect a sentence at the end of each chapter along the lines of ‘if only I’d had more time, I’d have liked to spend longer here but I have to get on the road’. Well, yes, I’d have liked that too. The author is first to admit that he is presenting a series of snapshots of the mood of Scotland today.

The first couple of chapters cover his route through the Borders, Dumfries & Galloway and up the coast to Glasgow in rain and snow. A shame that the journey (and the book) should start this way since it means these chapters are a teensy bit dull. Never fear, the weather pick ups from then and he enjoys a stunningly scenic ride up the west coast, along the north coast, over to Orkney, much of it covering ground he has travelled before and it feels a little predictable.

Then, in a departure from Muir’s journey, he motors down the east coast all the way to Edinburgh. This whole east coast is new to him, and it shows. The tone of his observations is different: he stumbles across things he hadn’t expected and his surprise and enthusiasm are infectious (his delight in the Tarlair swimming pool springs to mind in particular). His musings on these final legs of the journey were by far the most enjoyable for me to follow - the precarious nature of Aberdeen’s prosperity, the tentative resurgence of Dundee, the golf course created by a US President Muir could surely not have imagined.

Overall I liked this. It is what it is - one man’s very personal reflections on the Scotland he loves, its past, its present and its future. I came away sharing his sense that the people of Scotland are in a state of anticipation, looking forward to change of some sort and eager to play their part in whatever new Scotland that change might bring about.

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