Nicola Sturgeon announces a nationwide roll-out of literacy initiative to secondary schools, libraries and community groups

THE FIRST MINISTER’S READING CHALLENGE, a nationwide initiative to encourage Scotland’s children to read, is to be expanded following a positive evaluation of its impact thus far.

The Reading Challenge, funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by the Scottish Book Trust, offers resources and guidance to Scottish schools in order to promote reading for pleasure amongst children.

CommonSpace speaks to the authors of a new book taking a less than charitable look at contemporary Scottish politics

“WE MIGHT need to simply be destructive for a while,” says Amy Westwell, one of three authors of a new book on post-referendum Scotland.

‘Destructive criticism’ is one of the many contrarian ideas that mark the tract, which seeks to roll back what the authors view as the conformities of the post-referendum era.