Scotsman Englishman: Two friends. One thorny argument

by Finlay Young, Simon Akam

Overview

In the summer of 2014 Scotland stood on the brink of an historic independence referendum and a vote that could have brought an end to the union between England and Scotland that had lasted since 1707. As the debate intensified, two experienced Newsweek correspondents – one Scottish, one English – who had both covered independence stories in Africa travelled the length of England and Scotland together. En route they tried to get to the bottom of the debate, interviewing politicians, writers, artists, activists and "ordinary" citizens. In their searching, sometimes intense, sometimes humorous conversations, they examined class, inequality, nationhood, politics, philosophy and economics, recording their impressions in a series of video diaries and a magazine article. This book is a much longer, more detailed account of the highs and lows of their journey. As they travelled for two weeks in a very small car they discovered that when looking at national identity with such intensity and at such close quarters the political became the personal, with surprising consequences. Scotsman Englishman entwines two quite different perspectives on the complex relationship between two nations, As a result of remarkable candour from both writers, it’s also the story of a friendship under pressure. An apt, and sometimes poignant metaphor for the referendum campaign of summer 2014.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781910460146
Publisher:	Newsweek Limited
Publication date:	09/05/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Finlay Young is a Scottish independent writer, lawyer, and researcher. Born in Aberdeen, he grew up in Elgin then Perth before studying law at the University of Glasgow. He pursued Masters study at at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, on a Saint Andrew's Society scholarship. He subsequently passed the New York Bar Exam. His legal and writing work has taken him across the world to countries including Liberia, Zambia, Uganda, Cote D’Ivoire, Nigeria, Switzerland, the USA and most recently Ukraine. He has  served as an advisor and research consultant on judicial reform, legal education, access to justice and human rights for organizations including the World Bank, Council of Europe, Open Society Foundation, and USAID. He has also taught human rights law at Glasgow University, and co-authored a book on European Union Criminal Law. His writing has appeared in publications including The Economist, Foreign Policy, The Independent, Newsweek and the Herald Scotland.
Simon Akam is a contributing editor at Newsweek. Born in Cambridge, England, he held a Gap Year Commission in the British Army before reading English Literature at Oxford University. He later won a Fulbright scholarship to study at Columbia Journalism School in New York. After graduation from Columbia, Simon worked at the New York Times and subsequently spent several years in West Africa as a correspondent for Reuters and the Economist. He reported from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Cote D'Ivoire, Uganda and the Gambia. In 2010 he won the professional strand of the Guardian's International Development Journalism Competition. Simon's writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times, The Guardian, the Washington Post, the Economist, the Times Literary Supplement, the Financial Times, the Independent, the New Statesman, the Paris Review, the New Republic, the Literary Review and Intelligent Life.