Made In Scotland: My Grand Adventures in a Wee Country by Billy Connolly

The Big Yin pays funny, moving and entirely unvarnished homage to the country that so defines him.

After my knighthood was announced, a woman from the BBC came to Glasgow to interview me. We sat down in a lovely hotel in a nice part of town, and she hit me with her first question: “This must mean a lot to you, with you coming from nothing?”

I looked at her, and I laughed. “I did’nae come from nothing,” I told her. “I come from something.” I grew up in the tenements of post-war Glasgow. I am very proud to be working class, and especially a working-class Glaswegian who has worked in the shipyards. I come from the working class. And, most of all, I come from Scotland.

Scotland is a unique and wonderful place. Its national motto says a lot about it: Nemo me impune lacessit. A decent translation might be: `By all means punch me in the nose but prepare yourself for a kick in the arse.’ I did’nae come from nothing: I come from Scotland. And this book is about why I will always be happy and proud that I do.’