David Black

David J Black is an author, playwright, and journalist who lives in Edinburgh. An admirer of sociologist, ecologist, and urban theorist, Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) and the American community activist, Jane Jacobs, he has campaigned for the historic environment and the retention of mixed urban communities for more than four decades. He was co-founder and Chairman of Edinburgh’s Southside Association, a co-founder of Edinburgh Old Town Association, is a former chairman of the Borders branch of the Architectural Heritage Society for Scotland, a former member of the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust, and a member of Classical America.

His published works include All the First Minister’s Men; The Truth Behind Holyrood, an account of the chicanery and political intrigue which accompanied the commissioning of the Scottish parliament building, the most notoriously over-budget public construction project in modern history. In 1993 he co-founded Thistle & Rose, a craft manufacturing company based in the Scottish Border town of Hawick specialising in restored and facsimile architectural fittings for historic interiors.