Hope and Challenge

Quick-Fire Q&A with Pauline Bryan

Join us as Pauline Bryan, editor of Keep Left: Red Paper on Scotland 2025, takes part in our series of quick-fire Q&As!

What is a quick-fire Q&A?

We have our interviewee pick a number at random and we ask them the general question listed next to it.

Shortly after we switch to asking book-specific questions, to give you a brief insight into our wonderful writers and their books.

If you could summarise your writing process and five words, what would they be?

Confusion leading to some clarity

Have you always wanted to be an author?

I've always wanted to be a writer. Mainly, I dreamt of being a foreign correspondent rather than a writer of books.

What book has changed your life?

I would say probably reading Simone de Beauvoir when I was in my late teens. Particularly The Second Sex which was a thick book and quite intimidating. But I persevered.

It was just an understanding of what was ahead in my life and for young women's lives – what they would have to deal with in their lives.

In what ways have you changed as a writer since writing your first book?

Most of my writing has been, bringing collections of other writer’s work together. I've learned a lot about herding cats, which is a very useful skill.

I have learned to be more appreciative of different styles of writing and not think there's only one way of presenting information. It can be much more interesting if done in different styles and different approaches.

Is writer's block a problem for you, and if so, how do you overcome it?

I'm not sure I've had writer's block as such because my work is much more factual and I can always go and read more, research more and get information.

If you are dependent on your own internal process, I'm sure that is much more difficult

What is your favourite place to write?

Well, nowadays it's at a computer keyboard. I'm in my own study and it's freezing. The front of the house is beautifully warm and sunny, but I seem to have found the coldest place. However, it keeps me awake. It seems to work for me.

What is your favourite breakfast?

Sourdough bread, avocado and a poached egg.

What was your favourite thing about the writing process of Keep Left?

It was working with a group of writers on this occasion. I had a group of guest subeditors who would bring in their sections together, and a couple of times we met in the pub and had serious discussions. But really, it was just such an enjoyable afternoon to spend with people talking about the book.

If you were to summarise this book in five words, what would they be?

From despair to hopeful future.

What emotional reaction do you expect people to have to this book?

I'm sure some people will find it challenging. Either because they have very fixed political views, that don't align in any way with the book, or because they may think that things are in such a dreadful state. Just hearing the news this lunchtime is enough to send you into a spiral of decline.

But hopefully, if they persevere with the book, they'll see that other options can turn things around. Maybe not immediately, but for the longer term.

Why did you choose the title that you did?

We went through a lot of titles and funnily enough, the simplest just worked. I was coming home from meeting with Luath, and on the train, it just came to me. We’d been tossing things around and suddenly it just popped into my head. I had to send myself a message in case I forgot it because I thought we've had discussed so many names g that, I'd forget that one.

What do you wish you had known when you first started the writing process for this book?

 Well, I couldn't have suspected things would be as bad as they are now on the international scene. A lot of the direction of the book was assuming that things would be pretty much the same internationally when we dealt with change in Scotland and the rest of the UK. But as it happens the change is happening everywhere else and really impacting us.

I would have taken more account of that if I was starting again.