Permanent historical series

THE SCOTS WHO SHAPED US

Long-form historical journalism. Achievement is tested against the surviving record; folklore, disputed quotations, privilege, failure, collaboration and uncomfortable context are included where the evidence requires it.

Features 001–010 · Updated 14 September 2026

No. 001Elsie InglisMedicine, suffrage and the Scottish Women's Hospitals.No. 002Mary SomervilleMathematics, scientific synthesis and exclusion from institutional science.No. 003James Clerk MaxwellElectromagnetism, statistical physics and the foundations of modern electrical technology.No. 004Robert BurnsRobert Burns: poetry, Scots, politics, relationships, Jamaica and the construction of a Scottish national icon.No. 005Sophia Jex-BlakeSophia Jex-Blake and the Edinburgh Seven: medical education, institutional discrimination, the Surgeons’ Hall riot, women’s hospitals and the conflict with Elsie Inglis..No. 006James HuttonJames Hutton: the Scottish farmer, physician and natural philosopher whose geology helped establish deep time and a dynamic Earth..No. 007Flora PhilipFlora Philip: mathematics, women’s university education, the Edinburgh Mathematical Society and the first female graduating cohort at Edinburgh..No. 008John Logie BairdJohn Logie Baird: mechanical television, the first public demonstration of true television, broadcasting, colour experiments and the system that eventually lost to electronics..No. 009Robert the BruceRobert the Bruce: Comyn, civil war, Bannockburn, Buchan, the Declaration of Arbroath, independence and the myths that accumulated around the king..No. 010Nan ShepherdNan Shepherd: novelist, teacher, walker and author of The Living Mountain, whose relationship with the Cairngorms reshaped modern nature writing..