This is the extraordinary story of a remarkable woman.Doris Davidson was born in Aberdeen in 1922, the daughter of a master butcher and country lass. Her idyllic childhood was shattered in 1934 with the death of her father, after which, in order to make ends meet, her mother was forced to take in lodgers. In part due to her father's sudden death, Doris left school at fifteen and went to work in an office, gradually rising through the ranks until she became book-keeper. Marriage to ...

A tender, uplifting family story set in Aberdeenshire, sweeping from the early years of this century to the present day. Mysie Lonie was only sixteen when her drunken father sold her for thirty pounds as wife to ugly, middle aged Jeems Duncan. Taken to live on his croft, Rowanbrae, she tried hard to make the best of her lot and, in time, bore Jeems two sons - Jamie, the light of her life, and unhappy, difficult Sandy. In 1913, as the storm clouds of war gather, love comes with unexpected f...

Two young men from a remote Scottish village decide to make their fortunes in London, but can't escape their close ties to home or the girl they leave behind...Alistair Ritchie and Dougal Finnie have grown up in one of the most scenic villages in Scotland, but as they now have a desire to see the world, there is nothing to keep them there - not even Lexie Fraser, who's been chasing Ally since they were fourteen. Lexie has troubles of her own: a sick mother and a missing father, his...

After the death of her father, 10-year-old Renee and her mother are forced to open up their Aberdeen home to two lodgers. An impressionable and romantic child, Renee grows up weaving romantic fantasies around both men, firstly the dependable Jack and later the charming Fergus, who cements her obsession with him by seducing her, then breaking her heart. With the advent of the Second World War, Renee is thrown into further turmoil as the two men of her life are sent into action, leaving her ...

The three huge rocks rose from the bay of the tiny Scottish fishing village of Cullen. The locals called them 'The Three Kings', but to orphaned Katie Mair they were 'The Three Wise Men', her trusted friends and the only ones to whom she could tell her troubles. And as she leaves her childhood behind, her troubles can only increase. At fourteen, she is old enough to go into service, and her formidable grandmother has already found her a position. But the household, bleak and cut off at the...

Lizann Jappy is the daughter of a fisherman from the close community of Buckie. Having led a sheltered girlhood, her life is turned upside-down when it is discovered that the man she loves is married - for divorce is an unthinkable disgrace and her family lives by the traditions that have guided the local folk for generations. But Lizann finds that, when the need arises, she can be every bit as proud and resourceful as the people of her home town. Forced to flee by a series of misunderstan...

Willie Fowlie's grandmother calls him a 'nickum' - he is a mischievous Aberdeenshire boy who often acts instinctively, bearing little or no consideration for the consequences of his actions. When he is eleven, his playful antics lead to a full-blown murder enquiry, but it is soon recognised that the hunt is based on nothing more material than Willie's imagination. Four years later, however, Willie witnesses a real murder, but believing that his eye-witness testimony is simply another fabri...

A novella and collection of short stories by Scotland's favourite novelist. Two men sit petrified on Christmas Eve at the thought of spending it in supernatural company; a young family makes a tense Cross-channel trip in fear of some unspecified threat; an old man contemplates jumping to his death at the thought of being evicted from the house in which he has lived all his life. In this book, Doris Davidson looks back over an immensely successful writing career in a collection of twenty sh...

Marion Cheyne is young, poor and ambitious. Her humble village roots and poorly paid job offer few opportunities and Marion feels trapped in a dead-end existence. So when an unexpected chance to escape presents itself, Marion grabs it, ignoring the moral implications of her actions, and sets out on a new life far away in Aberdeen. Years later and the struggling servant girl Marion has been transformed into Marianne, wife of the heir to Castle Lyall, and every inch the lady of the glen. Mor...

The Shadow of the Sycamores traces the fortunes of the Rae family, from Henry Rae's birth in 1871, when his drunken father, a blacksmith, forgets the name chosen for him, to his old age in the 1940s. We follow Henry's story as he leaves home at 13 to work as orra loon at a farm and eventually meets his beloved future wife, Fay, when he finds a new job at The Sycamores, a nursing home for the mentally disordered and the elderly. Events take a dramatic turn when their son, Jerry, un...

Young Cissie McGregor flees to Dundee with her stepmother Phoebe after her abusive, drunken father has destroyed their family. There, for a while, she finds happiness - with Bertram Dickson, son of the wealthy mill-owner who is Cissie's and Phoebe's employer. But, too late, she finds Bertram has not married her for love. After she bears him the son they've yearned for, he takes the first excuse to throw her out on the streets - keeping her beloved child. Cissie has known the worst before. ...

89-year-old spinster, Janet Stouter, takes pleasure in raking up scandals, old and new, about her neighbours. She also relishes refusing her two nephews the money they seek to bolster their businesses. When a retired glass worker gives her some arsenic to kill the rats in her garden, she hatches a plan to test them. She tells them about the arsenic and waits for them to prove themselves worthy of inheriting when she dies. Whoever attempts to kill her will be her sole heir; if both do, of c...