THE PEPPER GIRLS

Annie Pepper is now in her mid forties and her daughter Lexie has just turned 17. Annie's late sister Mary, also had a daughter who is called Nancy and who is 19 years old.  This book is their story of growing up in Dundee in the 1930's and, like their mothers before them, trying to find love and a better life in a city where poverty still reigns and happiness can still only be found with the support of the men in their lives. Lexie seems to be carving a future for herself as a typist in Baxters Mill Office, with a boyfriend who loves her and wants to marry her, however, the past in the shape of ex boyfriend Robbie Robertson comes back into her life with disturbing consequences and unrequited love.  Nancy, on the other hand, married Billy Donnelly after becoming pregnant to him, but both of them find that domestic life and redundancy force them down different paths, which the arrival of their second child, wee Billy, exacerbates and finds Billy in the arms of a Prostitute.  Annie herself has also discovered that the past can find you unexpectedly and a letter arrives telling her of the imminent arrival of her illegitimate son, John, conceived in Ireland with Billy Dawson, but unknown to him or her husband Euan.  The consequences of everyone finding out about her bastard son, especially her family, almost overwhelms Annie, but she must see her son whatever the costs.  But what price does she have to pay for revealing her love for her secret son? Will there be a happy ending?