Some Assembly Required

• Will the Scottish people make home rule work?
• Will the Parliament building be ready in time?
• Will the joiners ever finish their fag break?

It is perhaps a little-known fact that while Scotland's politicians were engaged in a fierce contest to secure seats in Scotland's first parliament for nearly 300 years, the local delivery men were busy trying to figure out how to get the plush blue seats into the Parliament in the first place. Covering the six month period leading up to the opening of the Parliament, this at times tongue-in-cheek account focuses on the intrigues, petty rivalries and humorous incidents which resulted when the Scottish Office and their army of building contractors invaded the normally peaceful Theological College and Church Hall on the Mound. The story documents not only the gradual transformation of the work-site in preparation for the arrival of the politicians, but also the often frank opinions of the builders on both the job at hand and the future of Scotland and its new parliament.

The book's 'fly-on-the-wall' perspective allows a behind-the-scenes look at what the builders, joiners and plumbers got up to when the political circus was out of town. The surprisingly insightful commentary from John Knox and Davey the servitor also adds colour to this account. You won't find this stuff in a history book, because this story is unofficial, and in this story, the men (and women) wear hard-hats.