It turned out to be the same lecture I had heard him give last year during The Edinburgh Festival entitled 'Scotland's DNA'.
However it was so good that I didn't mind hearing it all again. To be quite honest, my memory is so bad that it was almost like hearing it anew.
Alistair along with others is trying to persuade us all to get our DNA tested - not to find out anything medical - but to find out - WHO WE ARE - WHERE WE COME FROM - our history.
What he has found so far is completely fascinating.
For a start, he horrified his Scottish Audience by telling us that once upon a time , we were all English.
Shock Horror!!
In fact, he said - everyone in Britain is an immigrant.
Britain at one stage was covered in ice - for a long time. Any people who might have been there before would have had to leave.
Scotland kept it's ice for longer than the rest of the UK, so migration to Scotland occurred up through England.
Red hair he conjectures belongs to those whose ancestors mated with Neanderthals
and
Tom Conti agreed to be tested - being a Scot of Italian descent. It turns out that his DNA is very unusual and makes him a descendant of Napoleon
and not surprisingly
Magnus Linklater's DNA shows he is a viking (his grandfather was from Orkney)
I am very tempted to get tested especially as amazing deals are being offered at the 'Who do you think you are' thing which has just finished in London.
One firm www.familytreedna.com are offering to do your Y DNA for only £40.
The Y-DNA tells a male who is father's father's father's father is ete etc - No good for female me.
The Mt-DNA tells a male or a female who their mother's mother's mother's mother is ete etc - suitable for me
However if I could persuade one of my brothers to spit into a tube, both tests could be done on the one specimen for much less money.
The difficulty is persuading them
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