This is a close commentary on the Scottish Independence referendum from widely acclaimed journalist and Alex Salmond biographer David Torrance.
The diary provides an inside perspective on the fraught 100 days leading up to 18 September 2014. As Torrance bikes around Edinburgh on his
beloved bike he interviews politicians and ordinary voters.
It’s all in there: Salmond’s attempts to claim the pound for Scotland, STV’s televised debates, Westminster’s Vow, Gordon Brown’s barnstorming speech, the true stories behind the headlines.
Torrance rejects the vague and the idealistic, unpicks the trite slogans employed by both sides, and leaves no aspect of the referendum coverage unanalysed.
While some Yes voters may not regard the high-profile journalist as a partial observer (at one stage he compares the Yes Camp’s verbal strategy to Orwell’s ‘doublethink’) he nevertheless manages to maintain sufficient objectivity to make this a useful and fascinating account of the most volcanic period of political upheaval in Scotland’s entire history.
100 Days of Hope and Fear, by David Torrance, published by Luath Press, £9.99.
[review rating=”4″ align = “left”]
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