I was born in 1955 and raised on a croft in the North of Scotland. The nearest neighbours with kids were several miles away, but I never had the chance to mix with them because my parents were old-school and kept to themselves. I was generally well cared for by my parents. Still, following the customs of the time, I was there to be seen, not heard, never talked to other than to be given orders, and certainly not shown ope...

I was an only child brought up in the late 1940s on an isolated croft, several miles from the nearest town and more than one mile from the nearest neighbours. They were an elderly couple whose family had grown up and moved away. So, for most of my early life, I had no close friends of my own age. This situation changed when I turned eighteen and was in my final year at secondary school. Our neighbours moved to a small hou...

My brothers John, Harry, James, Robert, and I (Jean) lived with our mother (Ailsa) in North Scotland during the 1950s and early 1960s. We had a good and relatively happy upbringing, albeit a strict one. Mum was austere and did not tolerate misbehaviour; her hairbrush or plimsoll regularly lit up my bottom for my misdeeds. By contrast, I had a charmed life at school until I reached eighteen and moved into the all-girl clas...