PlayITV1, April 2008
Click on the image to watch the exclusive video clip
Melvyn Bragg follows in the footsteps of early tourists in Scotland, including Samuel Johnson, that great 18th Century man of letters.
It’s a journey that takes him from the majestic capital Edinburgh (the world’s first Unesco City of Literature), to locations within striking distance of the city: the Trossachs, North Berwick and Stirling.
All of this is terrain saturated with writing, as it is with blood – after centuries of turmoil due to war, famine, class division, religious conflict and above all, the Scots' turbulent relationship with the English.
Perhaps the most famous Scottish poem of all is A Man’s a Man For Aw That, by Robert Burns, the 18th century so called Peasant poet. The poem is a contender to be the national anthem, for a potentially Independent Scotland.
Contributors include: Irvine Welsh, Sir Menzies Campbell, Ian Rankin, Jack Vettriano, Fran Healy, John Sessions, Gail Porter, Nigel Havers, Evelyn Glennie.
View images taken from the making of the show across the literary heritage of Scotland
