Lesley Riddoch brings a PhD comparing Scotland and Norway, 7 years (and a book) renting an Aberdeenshire Hut and a lifetime campaigning for land reform to the overlooked subject of how we spend our leisure time, and what that does to us and our indoor kids.

One of Scotland’s best-known commentators and broadcasters, Lesley was born in Wolverhampton to a mother from Wick and a dad from Banffshire. She grew up in Belfast, moved to Glasgow at the age of 13, went to Oxford University (where she was the first non-Tory President of the Students’ Union), did a postgraduate journalism course at Cardiff University and completed a PhD at Strathclyde University in 2020.

She is best known for broadcasting with programmes on BBC2, Channel 4, Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland, for which she won two Sony speech broadcaster awards but was also Assistant Editor of the Scotsman and edited the paper when it became the Scotswoman on International Women’s Day 1995, and was part of the start-up team for the Sunday Herald. She’s written weekly columns for the National since its inception in 2014 and used to write for the Herald, Scotsman & Guardian. Lesley was a member of the trust that helped the people of Eigg buy their own island in 1997 and founded Africawoman, a charity that trained female journalists across the continent. In 2020 she won the Saltire Society Fletcher of Saltoun Award for her contribution to public life.

Lesley has co-presented a weekly podcast for more than a decade. She has written five books – Huts: A Place Beyond, McSmorgasbord, Riddoch On The Outer Hebrides, Blossom: What Scotland Needs To Flourish, Thrive: The Freedom To Flourish and co-produced/presented six films (the latest about Denmark was being screened in early 2024). The latest film, plus others about Norway, Faroes, Iceland, Estonia and the Declaration of Arbroath, are available online.

Lesley is co-founder and director of the Scottish think tank Nordic Horizons which has brought dozens of Nordic specialists over to Scotland to speak with (and hopefully inspire) MSPs, civil servants and the Scottish public since 2011.

Check out the A Blether O’ Books 2025 Collection for other events in this series.

Refunds will only be given in the event of cancellation by organisers.