Dundee, city of discovery

On the last day of March 1988, a tractor was out sowing the site where Ford were to have built a £40 million electronics plant. The fact that the machine was a Ford, and that the farmer had leased the field from the Scottish Development Agency at short notice said so much about the Dundee character. Here were hope and initiative out of disappointment. Dundonians do not like a vacuum. The barley will be harvested, and there is every confidence that the next crop on that extensive acreage will be microchips that will grow into just as many jobs as Ford promised.What has brought about this transformation of Dundee from the ragged urchin of Scotland's cities to the smart executive with a caseful of attractions and the determination to sell them? Discovery is the answer. When Captain Scott's polar vessel came up the Tay estuary to its berth after all those years, it brought back pride in Dundee's traditions. Wasn't this the city whose mills had put sails on the world's merchantmen and piled sacks in their holds?The lesson is there in Victoria Dock. Scott's turn-of-the-century ship was refitted for new explorations, so there is no reason why Dundee shouldn't be refurbished and readapted, the nimble fingers of the jute mill workers turning to whatever technology the world requires. And if it's muscle that's required, remember that Desperate Dan is a Dundonian.This book celebrates Dundee, old and new in photo and prose: its people, its buildings, its boats, its traditions, its transformations, its optimism.