Great Scots: The Writers Who Shaped a Nation

Episode 1: James Boswell
James Boswell was a man torn between his patriotic duty and his desire for adventure.

Andrew Marr explores the writers who have reflected, defined and challenged Scottish national identity over the last three hundred years. He begins with an unlikely literary hero, James Boswell, a man torn between his patriotic duty at home and his desire for fame and adventure elsewhere. His colorful life and work captured the endlessly uneasy relationship between England and Scotland.

Episode 2: Walter Scott
Andrew Marr looks at Walter Scott, a prolific novelist, poet and political fixer.

Andrew Marr examines the life of Walter Scott, a prolific novelist and poet who wrote swashbuckling tales of romance and derring-do. But he is less well known as a political fixer who believed in a proud Scotland inside the United Kingdom. He helped to create an enduring myth of a land populated by a brave race doing brave deeds in kilts. An image that Scotland is still trying to shake.

Episode 3: Hugh MacDiarmid
The life of poet Hugh MacDiarmid, who reinvented Scots as a language for serious writing.

Andrew Marr looks into the life of Scotland’s most bothersome poet, Hugh MacDiarmid. MacDiarmid reinvented Scots as a language for serious writing, and at various times called for a Scottish fascism, tried to create an independent Scottish communist utopia, and was under surveillance by MI5 for many years. He would write the most powerful poetry in Scots since the days of Robert Burns.