Blossom: What Scotland Needs to Flourish (Post Indyref Post EUref edition)

After a long involvement with the Isle of Eigg Trust in the build-up to their historic community land buyout in 1997, I found myself describing their story, over and over again. Likewise, with other bold communities and determined individuals. Although not all have enjoyed the same success, folk are fascinated by their stories, Rapidly, I began to see a connection between folk I’d encountered in West Whitlawburn, Eigg, Drumchapel, Assynt, Possil and beyond. They were determined to reverse the top-down direction of political travel and run their own communities by and for themselves - even if the experts thought they knew better. As the independence referendum approached it seemed time to dig deeper - to try and demonstrate how the remote, centralised structures of Scottish life have robbed communities of confidence and dynamism and created stuck problems aplenty - from quasi feudal patterns of land ownership to the largest so-called “local” authorities in Europe.

A brilliant, moving, well written, informative, important and valuable piece of work.
ELAINE C SMITH

Not so much an intervention in the independence debate as a heartfelt manifesto for a better democracy.
ESTHER BREITENBACH, Scotsman