and the land lay still by james robertson

Some live mundane lives, others shape the nation. It is the world of miners and gangsters, activist and spies, housewives and matriarachs. and the Edinburgh festival was a three year old bairn just learning to talk in a foreign language.' of Pansy Potter, Wuzzy Wiz, Plum McDuff and Biffo the Bear. no duvets, no drip-dry shirts, no tracksuits and trainers the land of semmits and girdles and long, aching cold Januaries. the land of no swings on the Sabbath, no Polaris submarines in Holy Loch.

this was the land of few cars and no seat belts, no motorways but a railway station in every toen of any size, and marshalling yards full of wagons laden with coal and iron and timber and grain. On page 200, Robertson begins with a short sentence: 'This was Scotland in 1950.' What follows is a two-page paragraph listing details of a half-forgotten world. This is a novel of remarkable sweep, and considerable self-confidence. The angle is a way of capturing a scene obliquely, revealing truths through observations just a little removed from the centre of action, something at which James Robertson is a master. The photographs chronicle Scottish life over 50 years, from post-war austerity and slow reconstruction, to small moments of history, including, apparently the return to Scotland of the Stone of Scone, brought alive by the magical Angus Angle. Broadly framed by a retrospective exhibition of the work of acclaimed photographer Angus Pendreich, And The Land Lay Still is a vivid and ambitious portrait of post-War Scotland.

And the land lay still by james robertson