Lesley Riddoch describes the pioneering community buyout on Eigg; the brave decision by West Whitlawburn tenants to take over their crumbling hi-rise estate; the 20 year project by Perthshire ecologists to prove arid, sporting estates can become verdant woodland, the unconventional methods used by obstetrician Mary Hepburn to reach Scotland’s sickest, drug-using mothers, the story behind the Scotswoman & Harpies and Quines and much more. Weaving in comparisons with the Nordic nations, Riddoch contends ordinary Scots have demonstrated their capacity to run their own lives time after time – yet Scotland remains a remarkably elitist, top-down, centralised, “stand there till we fix you” sort of society.
Blossom: What Scotland Needs to Flourish is published by Luath Press and is available as a paperback or ebook.
