The final story in our series of readings from the work of the acclaimed Scottish author Jessie Kesson. Best known for her novels "Another Time, Another Place" and "The White Bird Passes", Jessie Kesson's writing was often inspired by events from her own life and by the landscape of North East Scotland.

Tonight's story is a beautiful evocation of a child's struggle to make sense of the adult world around her. Her unmarried mother, whom she calls "Aunt" Ailsa, is unable to provide a home for her and she has been sent to the countryside to live with her grandparents. There is one instance of strong language.

Jessie Kesson (1916 - 1994) was a prolific writer of novels, poems, stories, newspaper features and radio plays. She came through a hard start in life (born in the Inverness workhouse, raised in an Elgin slum, removed from her neglectful but much-loved mother to an orphanage in Aberdeenshire) with a passionate determination to be a writer. She combined a successful writing career with a variety of jobs, from cleaner to artist's model, and was a social worker for nearly twenty years, settling finally in London with her husband.

Reader ..... Helen Mackay
Abridger ..... Kirsteen Cameron
Producer ..... Kirsteen Cameron. Show less