Your Dearest xxx
17th May 1927
Dearest,
We have had more happy times this spring than some people get in their lifetimes and must count ourselves fortunate for them. I will treasure the memory of your love as long as I live. I am not what you thought I was and not what I myself thought I was either. I cannot explain and I must not see you again but you surely know that my heart is yours for ever.
Your Darling xxx
Facts and Fictions
Abbey Park at 15 Abbey Park Place is a real house in Dunfermline. Once a bank, later the headquarters of the Carnegie Trust, in 1927 it was owned by an American by the name of Bishop. I have evicted Dr Bishop and moved the Aitkens in.
Aitkens’ Emporium and the House of Hepburn are imaginary. Hepburns’ is imagined to be diagonally oppposite the tolbooth and Aitkens’ is next door to the Guildhall.
Bank House and Roseville are based on two real houses in Dumfries and Galloway which I have hauled north and plopped down in Dunfermline where I needed them, opposite the Guildhall and in place of Broomfield Drive respectively.
Needless to say, none of the Aitkens or Hepburns (or others in the book) are based on real people, except for Lynne McWilliam of the Gowns Department at Aitkens’, who got her name courtesy of Mrs Lynne McWilliam of New Abbey, the winner of a character name competition. My good luck with suitable winning names continues.
About the Author
Catriona McPherson was educated at Edinburgh University, and spent a few years as a university lecturer before writing her first Dandy Gilver novel (shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger). Catriona now writes full-time and lives on a farm in Galloway.
