Since 1998 Susan Bain has been one of the only outsiders to be granted full and exclusive access to the inside story of the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood. This book tells that story.
Holyrood has become far more than the story of a building. It is an exploration of Scotland's long anticipated new democracy, hamstrung by its own incumbents and wrecked by the egotism and ingrained agendas of politicians, journalists and other interested parties.
Almost everything which has appeared in the public domain over the past five years has been inaccurate and had a profound impact on how the parliament building -- intended as a physical manifestation of the new Scotland -- has unfolded. What Holyrood reveals is a nation profoundly self-divided.
Powerful, thought-provoking and thoroughly-researched, the book explores in great depth the story of Holyrood itself: the first years of devolution and the nature of modern Scotland -- stories for which the Holyrood building has become a potent and revealing metaphor. This is the definitive story of a crucial period in Scotland's history and the controversies that have shaped it.