Notes from the North

Notes from the North is a pragmatic, positive and forward-looking contribution to cultural and politicial debate within Scotland.

• Notes on being English
• Notes on being in Scotland
• Learning from a shared past

Sickened by the English jingoism that surfaced in rampant form during the 1982 Falklands War, Emma Wood started to dream of moving from her home in East Anglia to the Highlands of Scotland. She felt increasingly frustrated and marginalised as Thatcherism got a grip on the southern English psyche. The Scots she met on frequent holidays in the Highlands had no truck with Thatcherism, and she felt at home with grass-roots Scottish anti-authoritarianism. The decision was made. She uprooted and headed for a new life in the north of Scotland.

In this book she sets a study of Scots-English conflicts alongside relevant personal experiences of contemporary incomers' lives in the Highlands. Her own approach has been thoughtful and creative.

She was to discover that she had crossed a border in more than the geographical sense. Her own approach has been thoughtful and creative.