As Scotland stands on the brink of a momentous decision, Andrew Marr explores the writers who have reflected, defined and challenged Scottish national identity over the last three hundred years. He begins with an unlikely literary hero, James Boswell, a man torn between his patriotic duty at home and his desire for fame and adventure elsewhere. It is his colourful life and work that captures so vividly the uneasy relationship between England and Scotland in the century that followed the Act of Union.