It's a dismal day that doesn't include a dose of Doris' - Press and Journal 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 fabrication, the police wind down the investigation. It is not until five years later, during World War II, that Willie is able to prove the sincerity of his account and the murderer is apprehended. Despite his errant ways, Willie's headmaster recognises his potential and finances his matriculation at University along with his own daughter, Millie, in late September 1939. Free from the constraints of their childhood, the...

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 short stories, which also includes her eagerly awaited latest work, the novella "Duplicity". Covering a wide range of themes and moods, these stories are a wonderful tribute to the skill and imagination of one of Scotland's best-loved authors.

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 disappearance a complete mystery. She'd like nothing better than to cling to Ally, which just makes him more determined to break free. But the lads aren't destined to stay away forever. Marriage and babies follow – and so does war. London is no place for young wives and children, and where could be safer than the north of Scotland, the Back of Beyond? But what will their city-raised families make of it – and the folks they left behind?

The sequel to her novel 'Brow of the Gallowgate', Doris Davidson's latest novel follows the fortunes of the Ogilvie family through the World War II. Olive is determined to have her cousin Neil as her husband and won't allow anything or anyone to get in her way. So when her younger cousin Queenie is evacuated from London and begins to attract Neil's attention, Olive does all she can to avert the relationship. When warnings and threats fail, Olive concocts a web of lies to blacken Queenie's character and destroy her cousins' love. Despite Olive's success, her actions fail to secure Neil, who finds himself involved with other girls, finally meeting and falling for Freda. After this Olive will stop at nothing, no matter how despicable, to make sure Neil is hers forever. The consequences of her actions shock everyone and send the extended Potter and Ogilvie families into turmoil.

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, under-gardener at The Sycamores, falls in love with a 16-year-old inmate. When they marry, another inmate a much older man becomes insanely jealous and the scene is set for tragedy, with three mysterious deaths. Jerry enlists in 1917 and is killed in action. Years later, the family find unfamiliar marriage and birth certificates amongst his personal effects and start to unravel the mystery surrounding his second wife and child. This leads to a shocking discovery and there are many twists and turns before...

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. She will survive and she will win through. But while she builds up her own business and fights for the return of her son, she must finally confront the consequences of those events long ago in Aberdeen when her childhood innocence was shattered...

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 to a whirlwind of RAF sergeants stationed in the area. It is during this period that she meets and falls in love with Glynn, and the pair decide to marry. However, something remains wrong in Renee's world... could her secret fear of Mondays be the reason for her inability to find lasting happiness?

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. More a business arrangement than a love match, Marianne's commitment to her role and to the name of Lyall is total, and as family, friends and world wars come and go, she will stop at nothing to protect her hard-won position. But the many secrets of her past refuse to stay safely buried. Nothing in the small community of the glen can remain hidden forever...

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 Howe of Denty, is not as respectable as it first appears. And one desperate act of defence from Katie is to a start a chain of despair, passion and revenge.

'Absorbing and fascinating' - Christine Marion Fraser'It's a dismal day that doesn't include a dose of Doris' - Press and JournalThe brow of the Gallowgate is where Albert Ogilvie buys his property in 1890 - the shop he has dreamed of for years, and above it, a house with nine rooms to accommodate the large family he and his beloved wife, Bathie, desire. As their babies are born - there will be eight in all - Albert employs three sisters, one after another, as nursemaids. Bathie finds Mary and Jeannie Wyness more than satisfactory, but Bella, the youngest, is troublesome and sly, and creates a set of distressing circumstances resulting in her dismissal. The years go by, with their joys and sorrows, and war splits up the close-knit Ogilvies, some of whem eventually emigrate to New Zealand. And it is there that Bella Wyness, her resentment of the family grown to black hatred, will wreak her terrible revenge...

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 force and brightness into Mysie's life. But the conflict of loyalties it brings sets off a chain of terrible events that eventually leaves her bereaved, homeless and marked by a secret she can never betray. Nearly destitute, Mysie is forced out into the world to scrape a living for herself and Sandy. Her path will bring her further trials – also many joys – but finally she is given the chance to leave her tragic past behind and enjoy true happiness ...

It is 1915, and Elspeth Gray is young, unmarried, heavily pregnant and destitute in a strange city. Having no one else to turn to, she throws herself on the mercy of a compassionate woman she once met briefly on a train. Helen Watson and her husband, themselves expecting a baby, gladly give the desperate girl a home. After Elspeth's son is born, however, Helen tragically loses her own child, and in her traumatised state transposes the two births in her mind. With the neighbours also believing that little John is Helen's baby, rather than the single girl's, Elspeth gradually finds herself deprived of her own child. A second chance for happiness comes along for Elspeth through marriage to David, a soldier badly scarred by the war. But her children must survive the calamities of another war, and the tangle of secrets overshadowing her youth causes misunderstandings that eventually lead to disaster. Only when the full truth becomes clear can she and her family find happiness and freedom...

Compelling' – Aberdeen Evening Express 'Absorbing' – Manchester Evening News 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 misunderstandings and tragedies, she must leave behind almost everything. Yet as long as she can carry her creel on her back, she hopes she will not starve. Against the background of the herring fleets, small-time farming and the bombing of Aberdeen in the Second World War, this heartwarming tale brims with adventure, humour and passion as Lizann searches for happiness.

'It's a dismal day that doesn't include a dose of Doris' - Press and Journal89-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 course, they will each get half share of her substantial amount of savings. She does, however, make sure that her life will be in no danger. Unfortunately, the old lady spreads word of her newly acquired poison around the village, thus laying the seeds of murderous intent in several people. She had not foreseen that several other would-be assassins will come into the frame or that one will succeed in silencing her...