Archive
Interviews & Features
BBC Radio London
The Robert Elms Show
James Crawford talks about Aerofilms: A History of Britain From Above, today’s Fourfer is Al Jerreau, Dr. Barbara Morden on Dame Laura Knight and Nostalgia 77 chat about their new album ‘A Journey Too Far’.
BBC news
Scottish history told in graphic novel guide
Some of Scotland's more unusual history has been told in a new guide written and illustrated in the style of a graphic novel. Telling Scotland's Story features the Storegga Tsunami, a giant wave that hit 8,000 years ago, and South Uist's Frankenstein's Mummies. It also recalls 15th Century Scottish mercenaries who travelled Europe.
Written by James Crawford with art by Sha Nazir, the book is part of a larger collaborative project. Called the Scottish Archaeological Research Framework (ScARF), the project brings together research by archaeologists, historians, scientists and specialists in climatology...
The daily mail
The breathtaking aerial photos showing man's impact on Scotland's stunning scenery
From historic army barracks to a century-old dam, these aerial shots show the extraordinary impact man has made on Scotland’s beautiful scenery. The bird’s-eye view of how human interaction has shaped landscapes will be published in a new book from The National Collection of Aerial Photography.
Edinburgh-based James Crawford, author of Scotland’s Landscapes, said every inch of the country had been moulded by its people. In his description of the book, Mr Crawford said: ‘One picture can tell a story which spans thousands of years, and it is often perceived in many different ways depending on who is looking at it. ‘There’s so much more to our landscapes than bits of rock and water and hills. I think it’s hugely important to record it because, ultimately, the landscapes we see now are not going to be that of the future’...
Journalism & Extracts
the sunday times
The eyes have it at Scottish football's home
This extract by James Crawford from Who Built Scotland: A History of the Nation in 25 Buildings reflects on Hampden Park, the scene of triumphs and tragedies.
On family car journeys when I was a child we would listen to cassettes of Billy Connolly, playing them over and over. One of his digressions made a particular impression on me, about Hampden Park, Scotland’s national stadium. “You’d get 100,000 people in Hampden,” he said. “That’s 200,000 eyes.”
He stretched this line out into one long hiss, followed by a crackle of dead air. The pause gave you time to think. Mostly about the weight he placed on the presence of those eyes: that instant doubling of the capacity. It implied menace and a massed fixation on watching and demanding to see. Who did those eyes belong to? "Of course they're all Scottish," he said. "Because no one else goes there. The English have an unwritten rule. They only go to places they might get back from!"
In March 2017, author James Crawford spent two nights in Sweeney’s Bothy as part of his research for the new book Who Built Scotland: 25 Journeys in Search of a Nation.
James, along with four other contributors (the novelists Alexander McCall Smith and James Robertson, the poet and essayist Kathleen Jamie, and the historian Alistair Moffat) picked five buildings each from throughout Scotland’s history, using them to explore wider themes about art, politics, society and culture. Sweeney’s Bothy was the final building of the 25.
In the spirit of the Bothy Project’s aim to offer spaces for exploring artistic craft, James’s intention was to write as much as he could of this final chapter during the course of his stay. The text below, taken as an extract from Who Built Scotland, was written during his time in Sweeney’s.
the Bothy Project
A View with A Room
books from scotland
Introducing new book Bloody Scotland
In Bloody Scotland, published by Historic Environment Scotland, twelve of Scotland’s best crime writers use the sinister side of the country’s built heritage in stories that are by turns gripping, chilling and redemptive. Here HES Publisher and the anthology's editor James Crawford explains the genesis of this unique project whilst drawing upon his own experience of a time when exploring a ruined castle with friends turned suddenly darker.
A number of years ago, I went with a small group of friends to visit the ruins of Castle Campbell in Clackmannanshire. It was a strikingly bright June afternoon: a cloudless sky, no breeze, and the sort of humid, energy-sapping heat that very occasionally and very unexpectedly intrudes upon Scottish summers.
The castle sits between two narrow glens in the Ochil Hills, above the small town of Dollar. From the car park, you still have quite a distance to walk – all part of the experience, as a steep path winds up the hillside, with the ruined walls revealed only gradually on approach. That summer the surrounding undergrowth was an uncontrolled explosion of greenery, punctuated everywhere by bright, colourful wildflowers. It was so warm that the castle was blurred in a heat haze. There were no other visitors. We climbed in and out of the ruins, enjoying the dry coolness in the shade of the old stones...