There is a hugely varied history of Scotland almost buried beneath what author Moffat calls the ‘tartanry’ adopted by many Scots.
Moffat, a writer and former Lord Rector of St Andrew’s University, has used his natural curiosity to set straight 36 half-forgotten or misunderstood tales about Scotland. He presents little-known vignettes from the history of Scotland, described by Moffat as a ‘quirky, bad-tempered little nation on the northwest edge of Europe’. It saw many invasions, has people with Norse and Pict DNA, and his theory about porridge creating a more stable population is a fascinating one. But it has excelled in educating its population and boasted many fine intellectuals during the time known as the Enlightenment.
Moffat is quite acerbic about Sir Walter Scott, whom he claimed promoted a ‘synthetic tartanry’ through his novels. Moffat sees that as the beginning of the wholesale adoption of Highland iconography by all Scots, despite no Lowlander being seen dead in a kilt more than 200 years ago. One striking image from these chapters is that of Lord Lovat’s personal piper, playing the bagpipes as he marched up and down a beach, in a kilt, during the 1944 D-Day landings, unscathed amid the carnage. Captured German snipers later said they did not shoot him because they thought he was dummkopf, not right in the head.
From political, church and military battles to details of the daring return of the Stone of Destiny from London’s Westminster Abbey to Edinburgh by some students, Moffat’s Scotland’s Forgotten Past is an affectionate account of his homeland, reserving much scorn for a TV show of the 1950s, The White Heather Club, which he termed a ‘cloying, parodic world of tartanry’.
He senses the political climate is ripe for another referendum on Scottish independence. Only history will tell if he is correct.
Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alistair Moffat was born in Kelso, Scotland in 1950. He is an award-winning writer, historian and Director of Programmes at Scottish Television, former Director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and former Rector of the University of St Andrews.
He is the founder of Borders Book Festival and Co-Chairman of The Great Tapestry of Scotland, and the author of The Secret History of Here: A Year in the Valley, The Hidden Ways: Scotland’s Forgotten Roads and To the Island of Tides: A Journey to Lindisfarne.
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