A four-part series about the relationship that Scotland’s writers have with Scotland itself. Presented by Kirsty Wark. Episode 1 – Nationalism and Unionism.

How did the writers of Scotland respond to the Union with England? Kirsty looks at the way in which Scottish poets and novelists have uniquely and sometimes controversially reflected the political turmoil around them. She hears about James MacPherson, the poet who produced supposed translations of Ossian, claimed as an ancient Gaelic bard, which became a European sensation. Yet at the same time as the poems appeared, the Highland clan life the poems reflected was being destroyed as the Jacobite uprising of 1745 was put down, and James MacPherson himself ended his life as a wealthy Member of Parliament.

We also hear about Robert Burns, a proud Scottish nationalist, who castigated the 'powers that be of Scotland for being bought and sold for English gold' but who was also a government employee for the excise.

And on the other side of the coin, Sir Walter Scott was a proud supporter of the union with England who probably did more than anyone else to preserve Scotland’s distinctiveness in writing.

Producer: Brian McCluskey
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4 Show less