ALAN Bain, Chairman of the American Scottish Foundation (and President of World-Wide Business Centres at 575 Madison Avenue), was born in London and lives in New York but his heart will always belong to Scotland.
T IS difficult to convey to those that have not found themselves outside of Scotland for an extended period how profound the feeling of distance and loss can be and how profound and deeply rooted the connection and sense of belonging to the Homeland is.
I have felt this personally but never as keenly as when flying into Edinburgh Airport many years ago for my Aunt Betty’s 80th Birthday.
As I looked out of the window of a low flying propellor plane I felt a magnetic impulse arising out of the ground that reached into my seat in the aircraft and tugged at me.
It was the most extraordinary and unworldly sensation.
Yet I grew up in England, the son of Scottish parents.
