100 Weeks of Scotland

My second book in three months came out at the start of December and most of my time has been spent promoting it and ding events related to it.

Titled 100 Weeks of Scotland the book is an attempt to document the turbulent 100 week period in Scotland from the signing of the Edinburgh Agreement in October 2012 by David Cameron and Alex Salmond all the way through to the vote itself in September 2014.

I wanted to look at all aspects of Scottish life throughout this exciting period in the history of the nation, in particular looking at the lives of the people throughout this time. I tried to avoid politics as much as possible as this was covered in great depth elsewhere, but rather look at what makes a country tick and focus on the ordinary in what was an extraordinary time.

In the two years I spent on this project I travelled to the far and wide throughout the country and discovered people and stories wherever I went. I clocked up enough miles to comfortably take me around the planet in my journeys and probably kept the North Sea oil industry going with my constant visits to petrol stations.

It was only when I began the project that I realised how little of own countries most of us know. I thought I had travelled widely before I began it but I quickly discovered that I had barely scratched the surface of the Scotland. Even now, after two years spent on the road there are still vast areas, and many, many places that I never made it to.

It was an absolute pleasure to carry out this project and having something as solid as a book at the end of it has made it all worthwhile. I have many projects planned for 2015 and cannot wait to get started on them.