Showing results by author "Evelyn Hood" in All Categories

Scotland, 1918 As the war ends, Jenny Gillespie plans a new life in Glasgow, eager to escape her domineering, alcoholic father. But when her brother Maurice is reported missing in action, she must remain in the Clydeside town of Ellerslie, working at a shipyard tracing office to help support her struggling family—including her parents, grandmother, younger sister, and Maurice’s unmarried partner and child. Frustrated by her stalled future, Jenny is unsettled by the return of her former beau, Robert Archer, now her supervisor.

Orphaned Elspeth Bremner longs to become a teacher, but her foster mother, Flora McDonald, decides that Elspeth must begin work when she turns fourteen. Wishing to improve her future prospects, she attends night school to learn shorthand, typing and book-keeping. Elspeth begins to date Kenneth Monteith, who is studying to become a doctor, and when Kenneth returns to Glasgow, Mattie also travels there to begin her teacher training, following Elspeth's dreams and now her man.

Thirty-five-year-old Rachel Carswell is devastated by her father's death. While clearing his belongings, her Aunt Chrissie reveals a long-hidden secret: Rachel was adopted as a baby during the Second World War. Though her mother and husband, Martin, urge her to move on, Rachel is haunted by questions about her birth mother. Months later, everything changes when she is contacted by Cara, the twin sister she never knew existed. Warm and open despite her own troubled past, Cara draws Rachel in—but her arrival deepens existing tensions.

After his wife's death, Hamilton Forsyth announces his intention to leave the Ayrshire town of Saltcoats, convinced his duties to his three grown children are complete. But scandal soon isolates the Forsyths from the community they once cherished. Matters worsen when Walter reveals his affair with Sarah, the family's housemaid—now pregnant—and insists on marrying her. Thrust into her new role, Sarah struggles, while Belle and Morna resent the upheaval. Encouraged by a former classmate, Morna becomes a teacher and is drawn into the suffragette movement—beginning to imagine a different future.

Paisley, Scotland, 1941. The residents of Glen Street Tenement find their lives increasingly entwined as war reshapes their world. Julia and Frank McCosh juggle work, Home Guard duties and evening band rehearsals, while their daughter Chloe nurses an unreturned crush on neighbour Dennis Megson. Dennis, training as an engineer and serving with the fire brigade, lives with his mother Nan, a night-shift nurse. Ellen Borland works at the Anchor Thread Mill while caring for her injured husband, Donnie.

Orphaned Elizabeth Cunningham is taken on as a companion to the lady of the Montgomery household at the age of fourteen. When the mistress dies, Elizabeth becomes housekeeper. and runs the fine household for domineering Rab Montgomery and his sons Matthew and James, all who work for the family shawl-manufacturing business. Elizabeth is only seventeen on the fateful day when overseas naval surgeon Adam Montgomery, Rab’s eldest son, briefly returns home to his father’s house after the death of his fiancée in India. From that day, Elizabeth’s life is changed forever.

Eighteen years after being cast out by her father for falling pregnant, Kirsty Lennox returns to Paisley determined to lay the ghosts of the past to rest. Kirsty's husband Matt takes over the cabinetmaking business running it with the help of their two eldest sons. When a tragic accident befalls the family one snowy February day, it casts a pall over Kirsty's marriage and family life. Rivalry between the men in the family and Matt's chronic illness place further strains on the family, and then Kirsty's ability to earn an income is almost destroyed by an act of spite.

After the death of her husband, Kirsty Lennox remarries and rebuilds her life, watching her children find success. But the arrival of four-year-old Rowena Lennox, Kirsty's granddaughter by marriage, throws the family's plans for the future into disarray. Conflict flies when Rose Hamilton, one of Kirsty's partners in a second-hand clothing store, buys the mill her son Alex had his eye on, destroying their friendship. When Britain declares war on Germany in 1914 and the men begin to enlist, it's down to the women to carry on in their absence.

Rose MacDowall is hopeful that her husband Alex can overcome his post-war night terrors and return to full health so she can concentrate on her thriving dress-designing business. When the McCarts, an Irish family arrive in Paisley they are offered a warm welcome, employment and support, but dark secrets threaten to destroy the new lives they're trying to build. As Alex's father's health fails, Fiona steps in to help run the family furniture emporium but Rose is unsettled by Fiona's ambitions and wary of her motives.

After tragically losing her husband at sea, Eppie Watt must support herself, her daughter Charlotte and mother-in-law and sets to work packing and selling herring in Portsoy Harbour. When her mother-in-law passes, poor Charlotte is sent home to be cared for by Eppie's family. Eppie is thrilled when offered a housekeeper position to Alexander Geddes, a wealthy widower, businessman and father to headstrong Duncan and cloistered Lydia. But Andrew's mother, old Mrs Geddes is set against Eppie and as her interfering intensifies Alexander is left with no choice but to ask his mother to leave.

Meg and Duncan Montgomery move to the flourishing Scottish town of Paisley to find work in the thriving weaving industry. Soon Meg is expecting their first child, Margaret. To make ends meet, they live in Peter Todd’s household, Duncan’s employer and Meg’s days are filled with domestic duties. But soon Meg and Duncan find themselves caught up in the intricate lives of the Todd family and when a tragic accident causes further conflict, driving a wedge between Peter’s grown sons a decision is made to keep a terrible secret from Meg.

Christian Knox dreams of a life beyond that of a Paisley housewife and at thirteen is determined to further her education. Headstrong and enterprising, Christian soon becomes the manager, representing the local weaver women. Years later, she succumbs to a cossetted marriage to an older husband and is forced to give up work and is torn over her attraction to younger Benjamin Selbie.

Widowed Lessie Hamilton lives with her young son and her brother Davie. To make ends meet, Lessie works in the local grocery shop supporting Davie as he works on the docks and attends night school, hoping to become an engineer, much to the scorn of their reformed alcoholic father. With her mother's drinking spiralling, putting their vulnerable younger sister Thomasina at risk, brother Joseph frequently in trouble with the police and sister Edith thinking herself above them all – Lessie has much to contend with.

When working class Christy Craig marries the wild and wealthy Andrew Melville, an unequal union is formed, frowned upon by both families. While Andrew is away at sea, Christy pursues a career producing perfume and cosmetics, causing tension with Andrew who believes she should devote herself to their two small children and himself. When a family tragedy drives Andrew to New Zealand, Christy is left at home juggling family life and revitalising her father's soap-making business.

Isla McAdam is summoned to Paisley by a lawyer following her husband's suicide, only to discover that she was never truly married to Kenneth McAdam, a shameless man who had been leading a double life. Kenneth's unscrupulous actions have left very little to support either of his families and when tragedy strikes, Ainslie's mother, Catherine, becomes increasingly unstable, creating havoc for both Isla and Ainslie. Despite being thrown together in unexpected and distressing circumstances, Isla and Ainslie gradually realise that they can offer one another support.

Heartbroken Nurse Rose Gibb sets sail for South Africa during the Boer War after being rejected by the man she loved for the sake of her pretty half-sister. When things don't work out for Rose, entitled Blair Crawford is charged with escorting her home to the Clydeside town of Sandyford where their relationship is eagerly encouraged. However, Rose is intrigued by her mother's lodger, Magnus MacBride, who is in the process of refloating a tired old inherited paddle steamer.

When their father commits suicide rather than facing bankruptcy, sisters Annis and Olivia Kerr are left penniless. Annis marries their older neighbour, merchant Douglas Moncrieff, out of necessity so they both have a roof over their heads once more, albeit not a happy one. When Gideon Brenner, a handsome American shipmaster, arrives with Douglas's new clipper, eighteen-year-old Annis begins to wonder if her decision to marry a staid man thirteen years her senior was a wise one.

By day young Mirren Jarvis works in the twisting department at Ferguslie Thread Mills and by night she works in a local fried-fish shop. She also cares for her sick mother and forgoes the freedom and luxuries her friends enjoy, dreaming of the day her fiancé, Donald, will send for her to come and live with him in America. In the aftermath of the Great War, many of the women in Mirren's life are struggling.

As the Great War rolls on, Lessie Carswell's grocery shop is thriving, even while the community of Greenock experiences tragic losses. Lessie's son Ian reaches fighting age and is sent to Ypres. Her daughter Jess, headstrong and self-centred, goes to work for an upmarket dress shop and Lessie's nephew Peter is in prison due to his refusal to fight. Meanwhile Dorothea, the daughter of Lessie's late friend Anna, is working in a cotton mill, still unaware of the identity of her father.

Brothers James and Innes Lowrie return home to their wives and families after the war, Innes working for a shipbuilder and James returning to sea and the family's fishing business. Sister Bethany Pate and Innes have sons and heirs to go into the family business, but James does not. Innes takes in orphaned Etta Mulholland, adding to his already large family. In 1931, as the new generation take the helm and pursue various careers in Buckie’s fishing industry, some are content to take on the roles their parents have chosen for them, while others rail against these strictures.