Voyage of Intent

About the Book: 

A Scottish Parliament. Not an end: a means to greater ends. - Donald Dewar.

The new parliament building will be a significant moment in the history of the Scottish Nation...But a Parliament is not a building...it is one of the formal aspects of a political organisation... - Enric Miralles.

This book is from an initially skeptical standpoint James Robertson, the first writer in residence in the Parliament, soon found he admired the building and the enthusiasm of those who sail her.

Literature, like a parliament, has the capacity to give us back to ourselves better, new, re-imagined. - Marc Lambert, Scottish Book Trust.

It contains politically relevant poems and essays anchoring the new Parliament building to its literary heritage. It includes Enric Miralles's first sketches for the parliament - some never seen before and is from the author of "Joseph Knight", "The Saltire" and "SAC Book of the Year Awards 03-04". With full colour throughout, it will interest those with an interest in Scottish history, culture, politics or architecture, contemporary Scottish poetry and literature in context.

About the Author:

JAMES ROBERTSON was born in Kent in 1958, but grew up in Bridge of Allan in Stirlingshire. He studied history at Edinburgh University, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His first book of short stories, Close, was published in 1991 by Black & White Publishing. From 1993 to 1995 he was appointed writer-in-residence at Brownsbank Cottage, the former home of the poet Hugh MacDiarmid, in Lanarkshire. He is general editor of the Scots language educational imprint Itchy Coo, for which he wrote A Scots Parliament (2002). His first novel, The Fanatic, was published by Fourth Estate in 2000. His second, Joseph Knight (0007150253), won both the Saltire and Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Awards for 2003-04. He lives in Angus.