La Revue Écossaise – Volume 1/6

What is La Revue Écossaise? La Revue Écossaise will be a smart, hard-copy journal, richly illustrated with photographs and composed of thorough, in-depth articles. It will allow readers to consider Scotland through a Francophone lens, reflecting on the wealth of ideas, materials, and artistic works produced north of the river Tweed. La Revue Ecossaise will be delivered into your mailbox biannually. It will feature comprehensive articles, photo stories, translations of poetry and prose, interviews, and shorter pieces too. La Revue Écossaise will be the first French-speaking magazine about Scotland aimed at the general public. It will encourage you to (re)discover the Scottish nation, with its distinctive history, landscapes, culture, and politics. The first issue is scheduled for release in the summer of 2022. It will be the first of a total of six issues – with an aim to end the project in 2025 on the 730th anniversary of the Franco-Scottish ‘Auld Alliance’. Who is behind La Revue Écossaise? The team is composed of five Franco-Scots, all contributors to Scottish cultural life, and with a broad range of voices and skills: Assa Samaké-Roman is a journalist (RFI, Le Figaro, The National...), author of the book Écosse : Hadrien et la licorne (L'âme des peuples), and co-producer of the podcast Écosse Toujours , the first Francophone podcast about Scotland. Sarah Lachhab is a tourist guide, creator of the popular blog French Kilt, author of the cookbook Écosse : Avoine, haggis & cranachan and co-producer of the podcast Écosse Toujours. Julien Marsault is a reporter and photojournalist (Libération, Ouest-France...) and member of the French agency Hans Lucas. Paul Malgrati is an award-winning scholar of Scottish literature, Scots poet, and Franco-Scots translator. Jean Roman-Samaké is a political adviser. Why La Revue Écossaise? Almost a year ago, Assa told us about her idea to launch a French magazine about Scotland. At the time, this project sounded a little overwhelming. Yet it felt also incredibly exciting. Eventually, our passion for Scotland won the debate and we decided to commit ourselves to the creation of this unique journal, building a new, solid alliance between Scotland and the French-speaking world. Voltaire, the figurehead of the French Enlightenment, once wrote: ‘We look up to Scotland for our core ideas of civilisation’. Today, the Scottish nation is faced with many challenges. These are stimulating, not just for Scots, but for the world at large. We want to give Scotland a platform outside the English-speaking world: we want to amplify Scottish voices, allowing them to challenge, provoke, and intrigue our European and Francophone readers. What will the first issue be like? The title of our first issue will be: ‘Ce qui nous rassemble’ (‘What brings us together’). It will focus on the multifarious links that bind Scots, Francophones, and Europeans together. The first issue will be composed of: A long read based on interviews with former Erasmus students, discussing the Scottish legacy (and potential future) of this rich education programme, which did so much to bring Scots and European together. A photo story about the sister cities, Marseille and Glasgow. This includes photographs by Glaswegian Emily McInnes and Marseillais Théo Giacometti, emphasising the industrial heritage and the multicultural present of their respective cities. A historical essay on Franco-Scottish ties, from the medieval ‘Auld Alliance’ to democratic, cosmopolitan cooperation in the modern era. Poems and interviews with several Francophile authors. An in-depth interview with a surprise guest, reflecting on the theme of this first episode. Historical, cultural, and heritage guides and chronicles. Articles by external contributors (journalists, researchers, artists), discussing Scotland’s European past and international present. Further pieces about Scottish cinema, gastronomy, and landmarks. How to join our community? Nothing would be possible without you and your participation. To acknowledge your support whilst receiving your feedback and ideas, we will create an online community around La Revue Écossaise. This will allow you to discuss each issue of the journal, before, during, and after its publication. It will also be a space for you to send us comments, suggestions, and abstracts for potential articles. In addition to this virtual community, we will hold several in-person events, bringing together Francophones, Francophiles, and lovers of Scotland. The first of these events took place at Edinburgh’s French Consulate, which generously hosted the launch of our crowdfunding campaign. We would like to thank the Consul General, Madame Laurence Païs, and her team for their support. How have we been working so far? When we decided to create La Revue Écossaise, we sent out a questionnaire to potential readers. We received more than 1,500 answers in response. Most answers supported a quality-oriented kind of editorship, respectful of contributors, and eco-friendly in its approach to printing and circulation. Like you, we feel strongly about these issues, and we want to set our standards as high as possible. Yet as you can imagine, this will also have repercussions on our costs of production. Our approach so far has been thoroughly Franco-Scottish with an aim to conceive the magazine in Scotland whilst designing, printing, and routing it in France. Last summer, we hired Manuel Marolleau, a graphic designer from Nantes, who created both our graphic identity and the layout of La Revue Ecossaise. Contents for the magazine will be created chiefly by Scotland-based writers, journalists, academics, and photographers. We also welcome contributions from the French-speaking world. The first issue is scheduled for release in the summer of 2022. Our project is sponsored by the French media counselling agency, Médianes.