Finally, young Peggy is warned about the extreme vulnerability of young girls ( CN 302) by the wife of Willie, her boss and lover. Bad Attitudes', which consists of two novellas ('Bad Attitudes' and 'Jen's Party'), was longlisted for the 2003 Saltire Literary Awards. One of the most terrible scenes is probably the assault of the middle-aged, amnesiac woman who has escaped from her mental institution in “People Like That”. The daughter is a Sunday school teacher and her faither is Kilty Cauld Bum McFadjan, the Scottish Nationalist.

It took all your time to get through the day,” Owens told me that day in Balloch, some 20 years later. While this implied that Owens’s national and social disadvantages suddenly appeared to have become assets, it concurrently turned her gender into an even greater hindrance to her critical recognition since those urban working-class novels were quintessentially male 2 . This project will see the creation of the Agnes Owens Archive which contains previously unpublished plays, poems and short stories.I remember thinking as the afternoon wore on, the room grew darker, and the rain fell heavier, that there was enough material for a brilliant memoir. She seems to describe the down and out, and everyday people, the good bad and ugly, in a way that somehow feels part of our own humanity.

A strength of Owens is in the description of her characters, often homeless, alcoholic, or suffering with mental problems, but, just ordinary people struggling at an extraordinary time. I had read one of the chapters, Christmas in the Paxton, previously, but without the context of what happens earlier, it is much less appreciated. Short-stories are considered more difficult to market – which explains why Gentlemen of the West was first published as a novel – and in the case of Owens, writing only short stories and novellas seems to have contributed to the erroneous impression that she is not a fully-fledged author.Agnes Owens has been married twice and raised seven children, and has worked as a cleaner, typist and factory worker. He’s a straightforward guy with a talent for laying bricks and a liking for the drink who decides to head to the oil-rich north to seek his fortune. Gentiluomini dell’Ovest" è il primo romanzo pubblicato da Agnes Owens nonché l’opera che la introdusse nel circolo dei letterati scozzesi.