Meet the Author: Tom Chidwick

About the Book

On 1 March 1979, voters went to the polls in Scotland's first national referendum to decide whether to establish a Scottish Assembly, nearly three centuries after the dissolution of the Scottish Parliament in 1707.

Held just two months before the general election that brought Margaret Thatcher to power, the referendum was Scotland's first opportunity to determine the constitutional question that had dogged its politics for nearly a century and, as in 1997 and 2014, it shaped the country's public life for a generation.

With both 'Yes' and 'No' campaigners believing that it was "Now or Never", the referendum forged extraordinary and fleeting compacts between politicians and activists from different political parties. Musicians, sportsmen and celebrities joined the campaign trail, as did poets, clergymen, women's groups and City financiers.