
Scotland Today & Yesterday
Witness to a Changing Nation
John MacKay(Author)
Luath Press Ltd
Published on 1. December 2024
Book
Hardback
480 pages
978-1-80425-189-8 (ISBN)
Description
This book is the story of a changing Scotland as it was heard and seen by the people of Scotland. We all may have our ideas about where we are headed as nation and a society, but none of us knows. That makes what lies ahead so fascinating. Just like what's gone before. JOHN MacKAY
John MacKay is one of Scotland's best known broadcasters. His career as a reporter, anchor and presenter has spanned from the Thatcher Years to the Independence Referendum and beyond. MacKay has been witness to the major stories in the country's recent past.
There have been the tragedies of Lockerbie, Dunblane and Clutha; sporting triumphs and tears; the opening of the new Scottish Parliament; the drama of parliamentary elections and referendums; interviews with Prime Ministers and First Ministers; and the death of Donald Dewar.
From being in a room with a grizzly bear to trying to calm an irate - and topless - Alex Salmond, MacKay's career has been nothing if not varied. Using archive scripts, interview transcripts, recollections and personal diaries, he tells the story of one of the most tumultuous periods in Scotland's peacetime history.
John MacKay is one of Scotland's best known broadcasters. His career as a reporter, anchor and presenter has spanned from the Thatcher Years to the Independence Referendum and beyond. MacKay has been witness to the major stories in the country's recent past.
There have been the tragedies of Lockerbie, Dunblane and Clutha; sporting triumphs and tears; the opening of the new Scottish Parliament; the drama of parliamentary elections and referendums; interviews with Prime Ministers and First Ministers; and the death of Donald Dewar.
From being in a room with a grizzly bear to trying to calm an irate - and topless - Alex Salmond, MacKay's career has been nothing if not varied. Using archive scripts, interview transcripts, recollections and personal diaries, he tells the story of one of the most tumultuous periods in Scotland's peacetime history.
Reviews / Votes
It's pleasing to be able to get behind the armour of professional neutrality, with MacKay revealing himself as a man of good judgement, decency, and considerable political foresight.THE SCOTTISH REVIEW OF BOOKSMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
672 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80425-189-8 (9781804251898)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
12/2024
Luath Press
€23.99
Available for download
Previous edition

Book
09/2015
Luath Press Ltd
€38.56
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
JOHN MACKAY is a Scottish broadcast journalist and STV News presenter. John is co-anchor on STV News at Six and presenter on Scotland Tonight, the country's most popular news and current affairs programmes. A highly-respected journalist with over 30 years' experience, John has covered many of the biggest news stories in Scotland in recent times and has been witness to Scotland's transformation as a society and a nation. John's fiction writing draws upon the oral traditions of his Hebridean background with a trilogy of bestselling novels set in the Isle of Lewis, the first of which has been adapted for the big screen.