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Cos I'm in Spain - a thread of Scottish foremothers who fought fascism during the Civil War 1936-9. Cos fighting facism is important. This is Annie Murray Knight - a nurse. Her stories of Italian planes dropping sweet tins with bombs inside, which blew up kids, are harrowing. /1 
Next up, Ethel 'Camelia' McDonald, who broadcast in English for Barcelona Anarchist Radio. She was known as the 'Scots Scarlet Pimpernel' Gaun yersel' Ethel. #ThursdayThoughts /2
Then there was Margot Bennet, a crime writer, who volunteered as a nurse. A lifelong CND supporter Margot had a strong sense of politics and a steady nerve. She was one of Ethel's friends and she went on to write TV screenplays incl episodes of Maigret. /3 #ThursdayMotivation
This Glasgow statue is to Dolores Ibarruri, or the Passionara who said 'Better to die on your feet than live forever on your knees.' It is dedicated to the memory of Scotland's volunteers (65 Glasgwegians died during the conflict - 20% of the UK volunteers were Scottish) but /4
though they were brave to volunteer the statue does not commemorate properly 2 important groups of women. Fundraisers who raised money for the cause and the women left behind, many living in poverty, while the men went to fight. They found life extraordinarily hard. /5
So I made up statues and other monuments to these (and over 1000 other women we've forgotten to include in our built landscape.) Of course I did. The resulting book (with imaginary maps) is here: amazon.co.uk/Where-are-Wome… Where are the Women though? Where are we?
What I learned writing this book is that we come from amazing - amazing bravery especially. Generation after generation our foremothers fought for what they believed in - the suffrage, the right to education, labour, anti-fascist. They didn't always win, but they always fought.
And it's making me think it might be our turn - watching Joanna Cherry for example. There will be a statue one day - or there should be. Our daughters and grand daughters are watching.
And that's all I'm going to say about that. /ends
