The story is based on the events leading up to, and the experiences thereafter, of my cousin Kathleen, a 46 year old woman who had lived in America from the age of 2 but who was deported back to Scotland in 1997. Through flash-backs and reminiscences we learn what had started 'the bad lassie' on her 'road to ruin' after running away from home aged 14 and throughout 30 years of drug and alcohol abuse and various criminal activities



It records the actions and reactions of her extended family after she arrives in Scotland as they try to rehabilitate her and integrate her into family life in a small mining village of mainly Irish origin in Central Scotland. It gives an insight into the lives of an ordinary working-class family faced with a virtual stranger, with a chequered past, in their midst.



The story contrasts Kathleen’s hedonistic lifestyle in America with a much more parochial way of life, living within a close-knit community in a small village with old fashioned family values and where most of the inhabitants are in some way related, either through direct family connections or inter-family marriages, and where, unlike in America, there is no such thing as anonymity. It’s the kind of community that harks back to an earlier era but which still persists in small pockets dotted throughout the West and Central Scotland.



A PERCENTAGE OF THE SALES OF THIS BOOK WILL BE DONATED TO THE CHARITY "MND SCOTLAND" TO HELP PEOPLE AFFECTED WITH MOTOR NEURON DISEASE