'Well-written, impeccably researched and [a] definitive history.'
- Eddie Barnes, Scotland on Sunday
'...an important contribution to British constitutional history, to which scholars will refer for decades.'
- Tam Dalyell, The Oldie
'Torrance is always entertaining, informative and judicious. Few better books about modern Scottish history will be published this decade.'
- Harry Reid, The Herald
'Generally light and pleasingly straightforward, this is an easily digestible account...The author makes his points simply and quietly, sometimes pithily and always entertainingly.'
- Stirling Observer
'...a most diligent survey...and David Torrance tells it...with perception into politics and comprehension of character.'
- Michael Fry, Scottish Review of Books
'An authoritative account of the history of the office...painstakingly researched.'
- Peter MacMahon, The Scotsman
What do two former governors-general of Australia, Lord Macaulay's nephew and the owner of Scotland's finest salmon river have in common? They have all served their small nation as Scottish Secretary; some reluctantly and others with patriotic fervour. “The Scottish Secretaries” charts the trials and tribulations of the 39 men and one woman who have held the post since the position was resurrected by Lord Salisbury in 1885. From humble beginnings as an ill-regarded offshoot of the Home Office, the department grew to become a mini-Whitehall by the 1920s.
It was also an important wartime department during the Second World War and a testing ground for planning and social reforms during the white heat of the 1960s. But with the Scottish Parliament now established as the political centre of Scottish life, the re-christened Scotland Office is once again redundant.
Drawing on first-hand accounts and contemporary correspondence, David Torrance paints a vivid biographical portrait of those figures – many now completely forgotten – who controlled Scotland’s political agenda from both the Regency charm of Dover House and the Art Deco surroundings of St Andrew’s House.