Betty Annand Bücher

Stung with the bitter loss of the life she had built, Gladys's story from The Girl from Old Nichol continues with Gladys as a housekeeper for the wealthy widower, James Hornby. Reunited with Toughie for one night before he leaves for New York with his bride, their romantic interlude leaves Gladys alone and pregnant. Fearing the workhouse, Gladys confesses all to James, who offers to marry her and legitimize Toughie's baby. The new family lives happily, adding a daughter of their own. When Toughie returns years later as a widower, he meets his son and begs Gladys to travel to New York with him. Torn between the man she has loved since childhood and a comfortable life of luxury for herself and her children, Gladys faces a decision that will only lead to devastation; no matter what choice she makes, someone will be hurt and abandoned.

Gladys Tunner is born in the rough East End of London in 1829. Her parents are alcoholics, and when sheas a teen they try to sell her to their landlord. Gladys runs, leaving behind her only protectors: Toughie, an orphan, and Sally, a kind midwife. She lands in the countryside town of Dover, where she earns a living as a maid and a barmaid and dreams of being a governess. She also has the unlikely fortune to be romantically pursued by an aristocrat, only to experience the frustrating limitations of her class status. She must work to elude the capricious hand of fate, or die as she began, a pauper in a London slum.

This new selection from the work of JK Annand brings together more than fifty of his much-loved poems in Scots. Brilliantly illustrated by Bob Dewar, this book is for a whole new generation of bairns and weans to enjoy, along with their teachers, mums, dads, grannies, grandas and anybody who loves Scots words and rhymes.