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The White Bird Passes
Set in the backstreets of a Scottish city in the 1920s, The White Bird Passes is the unforgettable story of a young girl growing up in ‘the Lane’. Poor, crowded and dirty – but full of life and excitement – the Lane is the only home Janie MacVean has ever known. It is a place where, despite everything, Janie is happy. But when the Cruelty Man arrives, bringing with him the threat of the dreaded ‘home’ – the orphanage that is every child’s nightmare – Janie’s contented childhood seems to be at an end.A gritty and moving portrayal of a young girl facing up to hardship and deprivation, written with warmth, humour and insight, Jessie Kesson’s classic autobiographical novel is widely regarded as her finest work.LONGLISTED FOR BBC ONE’S ‘SCOTLAND’S FAVOURITE BOOK’ (2016)'Beg, borrow or steal this book.' – NORMAN MacCAIG'Memorable and beguiling.' – THE HERALD'Miss Kesson writes beautifully, her strong, delicate prose full of poetry and humour.' – DAILY TELEGRAPH'Completely frank, transparently honest and deeply moving.' – COMPTON MacKENZIE
124 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1958
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240 people want to read
About the author
Jessie Kesson
17 books10 followersJessie Kesson, born Jessie Grant McDonald, was a Scottish novelist, playwright and radio producer.
Her first published story was in The People's Friend in the 1930s. She moved to London in 1949 and, while working in a variety of other jobs, began writing radio plays for the BBC. Much of her work has been autobiographical, capturing the speech and landscape of the north-east of Scotland, and evoking the inter-war years. Her novels include The White Bird Passes (1958), which tells of her destitute early years; Glitter of Mica (1963), set in the farming communities of Aberdeenshire; and Another Time, Another Place (1983), describing the effect on those communities of the arrival of Italian prisoners of war in the 1940s. A collection of short stories, Where the Apple Ripens, was published in 1985, and her work has been adapted for television and the cinema.
(http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages...)
Her first published story was in The People's Friend in the 1930s. She moved to London in 1949 and, while working in a variety of other jobs, began writing radio plays for the BBC. Much of her work has been autobiographical, capturing the speech and landscape of the north-east of Scotland, and evoking the inter-war years. Her novels include The White Bird Passes (1958), which tells of her destitute early years; Glitter of Mica (1963), set in the farming communities of Aberdeenshire; and Another Time, Another Place (1983), describing the effect on those communities of the arrival of Italian prisoners of war in the 1940s. A collection of short stories, Where the Apple Ripens, was published in 1985, and her work has been adapted for television and the cinema.
(http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages...)
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August 1, 2025
This was Jessie Kesson’s first novel and, although billed as fiction, is regarded as largely autobiographical. In real life the author, born in 1916, grew up in the town of Elgin in northeast Scotland, with an absent father and a mother who had turned to prostitution to make ends meet. The GR blurb describes Elgin as a city but it’s really a town which today has a population of about 25,000. The novel doesn’t specifically refer to Elgin but it’s easily recognisable from the descriptions in the book. It was actually my dad’s home town, and he was born only 6 years after the author.
The High Street in Elgin has a series of narrow lanes running off it. These are generally known locally as “wynds”, although the protagonist, Janey MacVean, lives in one and refers to it as “the lane”. My dad was also born in one of those lanes, so it was interesting for me to read of people’s lives there, as portrayed in the book.
The story is told from Janey's perspective, mainly as a young girl although the book is in two parts and in the last few chapters she is sixteen. “The lane” in the novel is a place dominated by women. During the day the men are at work and in the evenings they are in the pub or at some other social setting. The men return for meals and to sleep. The only time the lane does not belong to the women is on Thursday night. Friday is payday and on Thursday evenings the men have to stay home through lack of money. In the book male characters appear only in passing. All the significant characters are female. The women’s lives revolve around gossip. That’s not me projecting a stereotype, more to say that the women’s environment is so restricted the only thing they have to talk about is each other.
There’s some good humour in the book. In the extract below, a group of Traveller women discuss a man called “Blind Jimmy”, who has a good singing voice:
‘He can sing like an angel’, the Dish Mender said sadly, ‘especially when you consider that he hasn’t got his sight. But for all that, Jimmy’s a bit too free with his hands the moment he gets within an inch of a woman’. ‘Aye’, the Fortune Teller agreed drily, ‘ Blind or no’ blind. They always know their road in that direction.’
The risk of a book like this is that it becomes a “poor me” account, but Kesson largely avoids that trap. Janey’s memories of the lane are warm and affectionate. They vividly portray a rough and ready world of women who curse and brawl as much as the men. In complete contrast are Janey’s grandparents, who seem to be fairly prosperous farming folk who live about 5 miles outside the town. Their house and surroundings seem like a paradise to the young girl. It’s clear that Janey’s mother is someone who has fallen a long way down the social scale.
The bogeyman in Janey’s life is someone the local children call “the Cruelty Man”, an official who has the power to remove children from their parents in cases of cruelty and neglect. Janey lives her life in near-permanent terror of this individual.
At just 124 pages, the book is almost into novella territory. I really liked it though. I tend to like novels in the “social realist” category. Right at the end the language started to get a little extravagant, but even then we are quickly brought back to Earth with a description of a conversation between a group of farmers. Incidentally a fair amount of the dialogue is in the dialect speech of Scotland’s north-east. Non-Scots may require to refer to an online Scots dictionary!
I think I might read some more of Jessie Kesson’s books.
The High Street in Elgin has a series of narrow lanes running off it. These are generally known locally as “wynds”, although the protagonist, Janey MacVean, lives in one and refers to it as “the lane”. My dad was also born in one of those lanes, so it was interesting for me to read of people’s lives there, as portrayed in the book.
The story is told from Janey's perspective, mainly as a young girl although the book is in two parts and in the last few chapters she is sixteen. “The lane” in the novel is a place dominated by women. During the day the men are at work and in the evenings they are in the pub or at some other social setting. The men return for meals and to sleep. The only time the lane does not belong to the women is on Thursday night. Friday is payday and on Thursday evenings the men have to stay home through lack of money. In the book male characters appear only in passing. All the significant characters are female. The women’s lives revolve around gossip. That’s not me projecting a stereotype, more to say that the women’s environment is so restricted the only thing they have to talk about is each other.
There’s some good humour in the book. In the extract below, a group of Traveller women discuss a man called “Blind Jimmy”, who has a good singing voice:
‘He can sing like an angel’, the Dish Mender said sadly, ‘especially when you consider that he hasn’t got his sight. But for all that, Jimmy’s a bit too free with his hands the moment he gets within an inch of a woman’. ‘Aye’, the Fortune Teller agreed drily, ‘ Blind or no’ blind. They always know their road in that direction.’
The risk of a book like this is that it becomes a “poor me” account, but Kesson largely avoids that trap. Janey’s memories of the lane are warm and affectionate. They vividly portray a rough and ready world of women who curse and brawl as much as the men. In complete contrast are Janey’s grandparents, who seem to be fairly prosperous farming folk who live about 5 miles outside the town. Their house and surroundings seem like a paradise to the young girl. It’s clear that Janey’s mother is someone who has fallen a long way down the social scale.
The bogeyman in Janey’s life is someone the local children call “the Cruelty Man”, an official who has the power to remove children from their parents in cases of cruelty and neglect. Janey lives her life in near-permanent terror of this individual.
At just 124 pages, the book is almost into novella territory. I really liked it though. I tend to like novels in the “social realist” category. Right at the end the language started to get a little extravagant, but even then we are quickly brought back to Earth with a description of a conversation between a group of farmers. Incidentally a fair amount of the dialogue is in the dialect speech of Scotland’s north-east. Non-Scots may require to refer to an online Scots dictionary!
I think I might read some more of Jessie Kesson’s books.
September 13, 2014
One of the best evocations of childhood I have ever read. It is autobiographical, heartbreaking and why, oh why haven’t I heard of or read Jessie Kesson before? Her biography; well, born in 1916 Jessie Kesson was Scottish and born in Inverness in the workhouse. She never knew her father and was brought up in by her beloved mother. Her early childhood was spent avoiding the rent man and the Cruelty Inspector (who had the power to remove children to the orphanage if they were being neglected).
Kesson describes her life with her mother in “The Lane” a slum where she grew up. The rulers of this slum were strong women led by The Duchess, who provided a commentary on all that went on. It is the story of Janie and her mother Liza. Janie’s descriptions are without emotion and capture the thoughts of a child with remarkable precision. Early in the book a black woman (probably unusual in 1920s Scotland) commits suicide by hanging. Janie finds the body and her descriptions of the events capture the essence of the sadness of what has happened. It is difficult to capture the way the writing does this without being sentimental or over dramatic; it is writing of a high order.
The whole book continues in this manner; Janie and her mother are finally cornered by the Cruelty Inspector and the court concludes that Janie is being neglected and should be sent to an orphanage. Again the descriptions of Janie’s separation from her mother are all the more heart-rending for being described in the manner of a nine year old. Janie has also been deeply affected by her brush with death and she asks her mother (and at the orphanage when she writes) to promise her that she will not die. Time passes at the orphanage and Janie’s mother visits; she is accused of being drunk by some; Janie knows better because she has seen her mother’s doctors certificate and she eagerly explains to her mother’s detractors that she has a proper medical condition called chronic syphilis.
It doesn’t get any better; as Janie grows she discovers a talent for English and for writing and she desires to write great poetry and to go to university; she is intelligent enough to do so; her English results are the best in the county. However the Board of Trustees examine her situation and decide that someone of her condition and upbringing should not be allowed to go to university (remember this is all true) and a more appropriate outcome should be a domestic position as a maid. This all happened to Jessie Kesson. She married a cottar (a Scottish smallholder) when she was 17 to escape service. She began to write in her 40s, novels, short stories and plays. She moved to London and worked in radio, producing the BBC programme Woman’s Hour for a number of years. She died in 1994.
Kesson was a long time admirer of Virginia Woolf, but unlike Woolf her upbringing had been tough and centred around poverty. Her writing clearly shows the situation of women in poverty and hardship, battling hardship and patriarchy; she was punished for her gender by being denied further education.
This is a powerfully accomplished work, brilliantly written and I have to ask why have so few people heard of it and why is it not on any list of great writers (male or female), not on any 1001 list and out of print? If you read anything that I’ve ever recommended let it be this book.
Kesson describes her life with her mother in “The Lane” a slum where she grew up. The rulers of this slum were strong women led by The Duchess, who provided a commentary on all that went on. It is the story of Janie and her mother Liza. Janie’s descriptions are without emotion and capture the thoughts of a child with remarkable precision. Early in the book a black woman (probably unusual in 1920s Scotland) commits suicide by hanging. Janie finds the body and her descriptions of the events capture the essence of the sadness of what has happened. It is difficult to capture the way the writing does this without being sentimental or over dramatic; it is writing of a high order.
The whole book continues in this manner; Janie and her mother are finally cornered by the Cruelty Inspector and the court concludes that Janie is being neglected and should be sent to an orphanage. Again the descriptions of Janie’s separation from her mother are all the more heart-rending for being described in the manner of a nine year old. Janie has also been deeply affected by her brush with death and she asks her mother (and at the orphanage when she writes) to promise her that she will not die. Time passes at the orphanage and Janie’s mother visits; she is accused of being drunk by some; Janie knows better because she has seen her mother’s doctors certificate and she eagerly explains to her mother’s detractors that she has a proper medical condition called chronic syphilis.
It doesn’t get any better; as Janie grows she discovers a talent for English and for writing and she desires to write great poetry and to go to university; she is intelligent enough to do so; her English results are the best in the county. However the Board of Trustees examine her situation and decide that someone of her condition and upbringing should not be allowed to go to university (remember this is all true) and a more appropriate outcome should be a domestic position as a maid. This all happened to Jessie Kesson. She married a cottar (a Scottish smallholder) when she was 17 to escape service. She began to write in her 40s, novels, short stories and plays. She moved to London and worked in radio, producing the BBC programme Woman’s Hour for a number of years. She died in 1994.
Kesson was a long time admirer of Virginia Woolf, but unlike Woolf her upbringing had been tough and centred around poverty. Her writing clearly shows the situation of women in poverty and hardship, battling hardship and patriarchy; she was punished for her gender by being denied further education.
This is a powerfully accomplished work, brilliantly written and I have to ask why have so few people heard of it and why is it not on any list of great writers (male or female), not on any 1001 list and out of print? If you read anything that I’ve ever recommended let it be this book.
November 11, 2025
This novel begins with a death, a young woman, Mysie Walsh hangs herself. She is a friend to both of our main characters, mother and daughter, Liza and Janie MacVean. Janie is the last one to see Mysie, having been asked to run an errand. A quarter of cheese, and keep the change, 'two shillings, are you sure Mysie?' she asks. Here is an extract from chapter two, just after the funeral, which has been conducted quickly; there is no enquiry, no inquest - and as the Duchess, points out: 'if Pinner has the undertaking, and he usually has the Poor Law burials, he'll want it over and done with by the time The Hole in the Wall opens.'
Another inhabitant of the Lane, Wee Lil contributes to the discussion:
'You lot hear the shindy, last night? That Liza MacVean and one of her pick-ups. You wouldn't have thought there was a corpse in the tenement. Chewing the fat like hell they were. Sounded like they were both up against Mysie Walsh's door.'
And another lady of the Lane: Poll felt suddenly ribald. 'Well. What's the odds? Mysie Walsh couldn't take it herself anymore anyhow.' Poll's laugh rose solitary, and shamed by its own loneliness, darted thinly into silence.
And here we have Janie's thoughts and words, she's about 8 years old:
'And me thinking Mysie Walsh came alive, last night,' Janie confided to Gertie, on the way down to join the watchers. 'As sure as God, I thought it was her when the man jumped out on me.'
'What man?' Gertie asked, with the sleep still over her.
'Just some man,' Janie answered swiftly. 'After Mysie Walsh likely.' For it was known men went for Mysie Walsh. And Janie hoped it wasn't known that men went for her mother, too.
The year is 1926, in the town of Elgin, Scotland, which is in the far north. There are 10 chapters, and it isn't until midway through chapter 8 that we are finally given the information on Janie's age.
So, you can see this is the rough side of life. A book about a child living in a room, in a block of many one-rooms and outside toilets. Janie shares the room with her mother, who must earn a living as a prostitute. Most of the time, we see through Janie's eyes. She understands many things, but at the same time, she is quite innocent. She loves her mum, Liza and doesn't want anything bad to happen to her. She leaves a game one day, having waited a long time, to share in with the other kids and rushes home; she needs to see her mum, and arriving home all out of breath asks Liza; 'You won't die will you?' Liza blows off the child's anxious concerns, which is her way of dealing with life.
This book isn't easy to read; and I mean that in a variety of ways; as I said to my reading buddy, Canadian Reader - this is no Anne of Greengables. Part of the problem is that we're held in the child's perspective and like her we don't get explanations, or guidance, or anyone shaping or framing the story for us. We have to work it out. We have to think about the collection of images and slices of life Kesson gives us; authentic, bawdy, rough, survival comments and observations from the people who share this street.
From the beginning to the end, we only ever seem to get half the story. Janie asks questions and her mother, Liza fills in as she can or as she will. Janie's grandfather has banned Liza from the family, but still Liza returns from time to time, to continue the acquaintance. We can only assume for Janie's sake. The grandmother as all grandmothers do makes a fuss of Janie, wants her to eat, to visit the garden with her. There is a crippled sister, Morag, whose life has been blighted, who prizes a treasure chest of rubbish, that Janie covets. Liza tells Janie, on the way home that she is wicked to think of how she will punish Morag for not sharing. And we begin to see the moral frame that Janie is provided with; do as I say, not as I do type reasoning. We follow Janie through a day in school, whereby she is both bored and frightened. The whole story reads as a child experiencing the world; sensations and feelings and thoughts and struggles to work out all the contrasting and complex adult relations that surround her, but from which she magically disappears into her own world of friends, and games and her friend Gertie.
The book isn't easy to read, I said above; and one of the issues is this lack of information and alongside it the lack of agency. Just like Janie we don't understand things, like her we have to guess, but children are used to this. They adapt, they learn survival strategies, they are used to not having agency, but this makes for uncomfortable reading if you are an adult. This, I think is a deliberate style choice by our author. In true postmodern style she abdicates from the position of author - which as Kesson knows also means authority. I will not be your guide she says, or tell you what to think of Janie's and Liza's life. I will not tell you how to feel - dear reader.
Those gaps cause us to think and to think hard. If Liza comes from a wealthy farming family, why is she working as a prostitute? If the grandmother loves Janie, why does she never visit her in the orphanage, in fact, why do Liza's parents not step up for the child's sake when the Cruelty Man declares Janie is at risk. Why does Liza only visit her daughter once in the whole 8 years Janie is kept at Skeyne?
The questions never stop - for me at least, all I could think about were the whys of what we hadn't been given. What was it that Liza did that was so awful her father would 'never break bread with her ever'? We assume she is pregnant out of marriage, Janie's father never makes an appearance. This continual opening of questions that remain unanswered requires the reader to fill the gaps. But I suppose this very much depends on the type of reader you are. Some can skip over the hows and whys and whats - and I'm not saying that is wrong, or inadequate, I'm just saying that often readers can't or don't want to look down some of those black-holes.
Another way to look at the gaps is to realise that Kesson gives us a choice. We can choose to engage with her story, or not. She has given us the freedom to ask questions; even though they are not answered. That is also a freedom to think, to feel, to offer up, to dig deep - and it is all at our own choice.
Some of those gaps can be filled by checking up on information sources. Towards the end of the book we discover Liza has chronic syphilis. A child in the orphanage complains to Janie, 'you told us your ma, was fair bonnie, but she lists and leans like a drunk.' Janie of course is indignant and retorts that her mother never drank in her life; and then we hear the story of why Liza is visiting. She has come to collect Janie, because being ill and having a legitimate, written note from a doctor, she thinks she has good reason to claim back her daughter, to have Janie look after her! Liza proudly shows Janie the note - which says chronic syphilis and when it is shown to the matron of the home, Mrs Thane, she replies 'but that only proves exactly why Janie will not be going home with you'. Liza curses and screams and Janie is ashamed of her mother. It's the last time she sees her and in her thoughts we see her regret at her mother leaving with no words of love from her. It is a sad story.
Back to Google: - penicillin, (antibiotics) only became available to treat bacterial diseases such as syphilis after the Second World War. We know Janie is almost 16 when her mother comes, so it's easy to calculate a date of 1934/5 - at that time there was no cure. As Liza says to her daughter, 'I don't have much time left'.
What I concluded from this process of asking questions and trying to think of answers, is that we engage with the characters in ways which would not happen if the author simply provided us with all the usual information, which is what happens in most novels. We don't have to think too much or tax our emotions too severely. We aren't placed in a position of not knowing. It's deeply uncomfortable to be aware of only having bits and pieces of the whole. There is no security in that - just as there is no security in Janie's life or Liza's either. Money offers security as does knowledge, and education, and background, knowing who you are gives security. And Janie has none of these. She doesn't know where she comes from, she is deprived of her grandparents, her father and her beloved mother. She has to create a self from so little, with so little background and minimal help.
At the end, here is Janie standing thinking about the landscape around her, she's been listening to the crude talk of the men as they come into sup from the threshing mill. They goad her with the knowledge she'll be going with them in the 'morn, to toss the sheaves down into the thresher - and Mrs Thane mocks her saying; 'she'll need no teaching at Kingorm, she already thinks hersel' a lady.' Janie hoping for a future, knows that a place at the university could easily be snatched from her:
The Cairngorms had begun to close in and were pressing down on the howe. Carron wood had crept upwards till its trees stood rooted against the sky. Silence had circled all the landscape, and held it a trembling prisoner. A peesie had cried through the silence, weeping its grief across the stubble field. Some long, long grief that had found an echo in Janie herself. Her pain became submerged in the peesie's cry. Herself and the landscape had stood in some ache, waiting for release.
Guard us, we pray
Throughout the coming night.
It was then that she realised why the Minister always chose that hymn to end the Evening Service. Because the aloneness of night was beyond the bearing of the land itself. It caught you, the land did, if you walked it at night. Held you hostage. Clamped and small within its own immensity, and cast all the burden of its aloneness upon you.
I think this is one of the best novels I have ever read. Please go ahead and try it for yourself.
Another inhabitant of the Lane, Wee Lil contributes to the discussion:
'You lot hear the shindy, last night? That Liza MacVean and one of her pick-ups. You wouldn't have thought there was a corpse in the tenement. Chewing the fat like hell they were. Sounded like they were both up against Mysie Walsh's door.'
And another lady of the Lane: Poll felt suddenly ribald. 'Well. What's the odds? Mysie Walsh couldn't take it herself anymore anyhow.' Poll's laugh rose solitary, and shamed by its own loneliness, darted thinly into silence.
And here we have Janie's thoughts and words, she's about 8 years old:
'And me thinking Mysie Walsh came alive, last night,' Janie confided to Gertie, on the way down to join the watchers. 'As sure as God, I thought it was her when the man jumped out on me.'
'What man?' Gertie asked, with the sleep still over her.
'Just some man,' Janie answered swiftly. 'After Mysie Walsh likely.' For it was known men went for Mysie Walsh. And Janie hoped it wasn't known that men went for her mother, too.
The year is 1926, in the town of Elgin, Scotland, which is in the far north. There are 10 chapters, and it isn't until midway through chapter 8 that we are finally given the information on Janie's age.
So, you can see this is the rough side of life. A book about a child living in a room, in a block of many one-rooms and outside toilets. Janie shares the room with her mother, who must earn a living as a prostitute. Most of the time, we see through Janie's eyes. She understands many things, but at the same time, she is quite innocent. She loves her mum, Liza and doesn't want anything bad to happen to her. She leaves a game one day, having waited a long time, to share in with the other kids and rushes home; she needs to see her mum, and arriving home all out of breath asks Liza; 'You won't die will you?' Liza blows off the child's anxious concerns, which is her way of dealing with life.
This book isn't easy to read; and I mean that in a variety of ways; as I said to my reading buddy, Canadian Reader - this is no Anne of Greengables. Part of the problem is that we're held in the child's perspective and like her we don't get explanations, or guidance, or anyone shaping or framing the story for us. We have to work it out. We have to think about the collection of images and slices of life Kesson gives us; authentic, bawdy, rough, survival comments and observations from the people who share this street.
From the beginning to the end, we only ever seem to get half the story. Janie asks questions and her mother, Liza fills in as she can or as she will. Janie's grandfather has banned Liza from the family, but still Liza returns from time to time, to continue the acquaintance. We can only assume for Janie's sake. The grandmother as all grandmothers do makes a fuss of Janie, wants her to eat, to visit the garden with her. There is a crippled sister, Morag, whose life has been blighted, who prizes a treasure chest of rubbish, that Janie covets. Liza tells Janie, on the way home that she is wicked to think of how she will punish Morag for not sharing. And we begin to see the moral frame that Janie is provided with; do as I say, not as I do type reasoning. We follow Janie through a day in school, whereby she is both bored and frightened. The whole story reads as a child experiencing the world; sensations and feelings and thoughts and struggles to work out all the contrasting and complex adult relations that surround her, but from which she magically disappears into her own world of friends, and games and her friend Gertie.
The book isn't easy to read, I said above; and one of the issues is this lack of information and alongside it the lack of agency. Just like Janie we don't understand things, like her we have to guess, but children are used to this. They adapt, they learn survival strategies, they are used to not having agency, but this makes for uncomfortable reading if you are an adult. This, I think is a deliberate style choice by our author. In true postmodern style she abdicates from the position of author - which as Kesson knows also means authority. I will not be your guide she says, or tell you what to think of Janie's and Liza's life. I will not tell you how to feel - dear reader.
Those gaps cause us to think and to think hard. If Liza comes from a wealthy farming family, why is she working as a prostitute? If the grandmother loves Janie, why does she never visit her in the orphanage, in fact, why do Liza's parents not step up for the child's sake when the Cruelty Man declares Janie is at risk. Why does Liza only visit her daughter once in the whole 8 years Janie is kept at Skeyne?
The questions never stop - for me at least, all I could think about were the whys of what we hadn't been given. What was it that Liza did that was so awful her father would 'never break bread with her ever'? We assume she is pregnant out of marriage, Janie's father never makes an appearance. This continual opening of questions that remain unanswered requires the reader to fill the gaps. But I suppose this very much depends on the type of reader you are. Some can skip over the hows and whys and whats - and I'm not saying that is wrong, or inadequate, I'm just saying that often readers can't or don't want to look down some of those black-holes.
Another way to look at the gaps is to realise that Kesson gives us a choice. We can choose to engage with her story, or not. She has given us the freedom to ask questions; even though they are not answered. That is also a freedom to think, to feel, to offer up, to dig deep - and it is all at our own choice.
Some of those gaps can be filled by checking up on information sources. Towards the end of the book we discover Liza has chronic syphilis. A child in the orphanage complains to Janie, 'you told us your ma, was fair bonnie, but she lists and leans like a drunk.' Janie of course is indignant and retorts that her mother never drank in her life; and then we hear the story of why Liza is visiting. She has come to collect Janie, because being ill and having a legitimate, written note from a doctor, she thinks she has good reason to claim back her daughter, to have Janie look after her! Liza proudly shows Janie the note - which says chronic syphilis and when it is shown to the matron of the home, Mrs Thane, she replies 'but that only proves exactly why Janie will not be going home with you'. Liza curses and screams and Janie is ashamed of her mother. It's the last time she sees her and in her thoughts we see her regret at her mother leaving with no words of love from her. It is a sad story.
Back to Google: - penicillin, (antibiotics) only became available to treat bacterial diseases such as syphilis after the Second World War. We know Janie is almost 16 when her mother comes, so it's easy to calculate a date of 1934/5 - at that time there was no cure. As Liza says to her daughter, 'I don't have much time left'.
What I concluded from this process of asking questions and trying to think of answers, is that we engage with the characters in ways which would not happen if the author simply provided us with all the usual information, which is what happens in most novels. We don't have to think too much or tax our emotions too severely. We aren't placed in a position of not knowing. It's deeply uncomfortable to be aware of only having bits and pieces of the whole. There is no security in that - just as there is no security in Janie's life or Liza's either. Money offers security as does knowledge, and education, and background, knowing who you are gives security. And Janie has none of these. She doesn't know where she comes from, she is deprived of her grandparents, her father and her beloved mother. She has to create a self from so little, with so little background and minimal help.
At the end, here is Janie standing thinking about the landscape around her, she's been listening to the crude talk of the men as they come into sup from the threshing mill. They goad her with the knowledge she'll be going with them in the 'morn, to toss the sheaves down into the thresher - and Mrs Thane mocks her saying; 'she'll need no teaching at Kingorm, she already thinks hersel' a lady.' Janie hoping for a future, knows that a place at the university could easily be snatched from her:
The Cairngorms had begun to close in and were pressing down on the howe. Carron wood had crept upwards till its trees stood rooted against the sky. Silence had circled all the landscape, and held it a trembling prisoner. A peesie had cried through the silence, weeping its grief across the stubble field. Some long, long grief that had found an echo in Janie herself. Her pain became submerged in the peesie's cry. Herself and the landscape had stood in some ache, waiting for release.
Guard us, we pray
Throughout the coming night.
It was then that she realised why the Minister always chose that hymn to end the Evening Service. Because the aloneness of night was beyond the bearing of the land itself. It caught you, the land did, if you walked it at night. Held you hostage. Clamped and small within its own immensity, and cast all the burden of its aloneness upon you.
I think this is one of the best novels I have ever read. Please go ahead and try it for yourself.
June 5, 2017
All the the things I know, she taught me, God. The good things, I mean. She could make the cherry trees bloom above Dean's Ford, even when it was winter. Hidden birds betrayed their names the instant she heard their song. She gave the nameless little rivers high hill sources and deep sea endings. She put a singing seal in Loch Na Boune and a lament on the long, lonely winds. She saw a legend in the canna flowers and a plough amongst the stars.
Janie adored her mother despite her failings and despite the neglect that led her to be taken into care. She grew up in the slums of Elgin in North East Scotland, south of Inverness, until she was taken into care at 8 years old. She had very little and her mother was a whore but she was such a happy, innocent child. She took pleasure in everyone and everything around her. A child like that would surely have to grow up to be a writer.
My Nana, born 1900, used to talk about all the characters in her community. I loved to listen to her. There seemed to be such a wealth of rich characters, most of whom had nicknames and long stories attached to them. Some of them made me roar with laughter, others brought a lump to my throat. Everyone knew everyone and everyone knew everyone's secrets. Are there still places like that?
Not so much a novella as a series of semi autobiographical reminiscences of times past. Touching, beautifully written, heart breaking and unforgettable. I need to read more Jessie Kesson and I'm sure I'll read this book again.
With thanks to NetGalley and Black & White Publishing for a review copy.
Janie adored her mother despite her failings and despite the neglect that led her to be taken into care. She grew up in the slums of Elgin in North East Scotland, south of Inverness, until she was taken into care at 8 years old. She had very little and her mother was a whore but she was such a happy, innocent child. She took pleasure in everyone and everything around her. A child like that would surely have to grow up to be a writer.
My Nana, born 1900, used to talk about all the characters in her community. I loved to listen to her. There seemed to be such a wealth of rich characters, most of whom had nicknames and long stories attached to them. Some of them made me roar with laughter, others brought a lump to my throat. Everyone knew everyone and everyone knew everyone's secrets. Are there still places like that?
Not so much a novella as a series of semi autobiographical reminiscences of times past. Touching, beautifully written, heart breaking and unforgettable. I need to read more Jessie Kesson and I'm sure I'll read this book again.
With thanks to NetGalley and Black & White Publishing for a review copy.
August 30, 2020
Life in the Lane…
Little Janie McVean has grown up on Lady’s Lane, a place ruled over by the women for most of the time, till the men come home from work and make it theirs for a while. No man comes home to Janie’s house though – or perhaps too many. For although Janie is too young to understand, the reader soon discerns that her mother, Liza, is a prostitute, along with some of the other women who live in the Lane. Janie doesn’t care – to her this is the only possible life, and though she has only one dress and often goes hungry and dirty and has nits in her hair, she’s happy. She has friends who are just like her and an interest in people of all sorts, and she loves to watch and listen to the women of the Lane. So when the Cruelty Man comes calling, to Janie the real cruelty is the threat of being taken away from the mother she adores, however bad a parent she may be.
Largely autobiographical, the book is set in the town of Elgin in the north of Scotland in the 1920s. Because it’s so well known to be based on Kesson’s own early life, there’s a feeling of reassurance for the reader – however painful it is to watch the neglect of this child, we know she survives and pulls herself out of the poverty of her beginnings. This makes it an easier, less tense read than it might otherwise have been, allowing the reader to find amusement, along with Janie herself, in the scrabbling lives of the women of the Lane and the hardships of Janie’s life. And Janie’s uncomplicated love for her neglectful, inadequate mother makes the reader see her with sympathetic eyes too for, whatever Liza’s flaws may be, she loves her daughter.
The writing is wonderful, managing to give a real flavour of the local speech without ever becoming hard for standard English speakers to understand. It’s told in the third person, in the language of adults, but the perspective comes almost entirely through the lens of eight-year-old Janie’s observant but sometimes uncomprehending eyes. So it’s up to the reader to fill in the blanks, and sometimes it’s in these spaces that the true pathos of Janie’s life is shown – a pathos Janie doesn’t feel at this young age. Her mother comes from a respectable and rather well-off family, and sometimes they visit Janie’s grandmother – another warm and loving, if occasional, presence in Janie’s life. But her grandfather’s reaction to Liza and Janie lets the reader know how badly the family feels Liza has disgraced them, and gives us pointers as to how she fell from here all the way down to the Lane. It’s a hard story, told with warmth and empathy and no bitterly pointed finger of blame from the adult Kesson.
As well as her clear-sighted but sympathetic portrayal of the Lane and its inhabitants, Kesson also has an excellent eye for the landscape and nature of the area, and the ability to weave her fine descriptive prose seamlessly so that it becomes part of the story. Their mutual love of the countryside is part of the bond between mother and daughter.
When the Cruelty Man takes Janie off to the orphanage, the story suddenly contracts, with years covered in just a few pages. This feels a bit disconcerting, but actually I think it probably works better than it would have if Kesson had devoted more time to that section. One gathers that her time there was neither wonderful nor terrible – she was just stuck in a kind of limbo until her life could resume. The real story is of the Lane, and of the love between child and mother that transcends the things that society determines to be good parenting. The ending is bittersweet – the tragedies of Janie’s young life tempered always by the knowledge that she will survive and rise. A beautiful book that challenges the reader to be slow to judge – to accept that love and even joyousness can sometimes be found in the darkest circumstances. Highly recommended.
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Little Janie McVean has grown up on Lady’s Lane, a place ruled over by the women for most of the time, till the men come home from work and make it theirs for a while. No man comes home to Janie’s house though – or perhaps too many. For although Janie is too young to understand, the reader soon discerns that her mother, Liza, is a prostitute, along with some of the other women who live in the Lane. Janie doesn’t care – to her this is the only possible life, and though she has only one dress and often goes hungry and dirty and has nits in her hair, she’s happy. She has friends who are just like her and an interest in people of all sorts, and she loves to watch and listen to the women of the Lane. So when the Cruelty Man comes calling, to Janie the real cruelty is the threat of being taken away from the mother she adores, however bad a parent she may be.
Largely autobiographical, the book is set in the town of Elgin in the north of Scotland in the 1920s. Because it’s so well known to be based on Kesson’s own early life, there’s a feeling of reassurance for the reader – however painful it is to watch the neglect of this child, we know she survives and pulls herself out of the poverty of her beginnings. This makes it an easier, less tense read than it might otherwise have been, allowing the reader to find amusement, along with Janie herself, in the scrabbling lives of the women of the Lane and the hardships of Janie’s life. And Janie’s uncomplicated love for her neglectful, inadequate mother makes the reader see her with sympathetic eyes too for, whatever Liza’s flaws may be, she loves her daughter.
“About that doll you’re to get, I’ve got an idea it might be lying under some bits of things that’s come from America. Some bits belonging to my cousin’s bairn; just your size she is. And my word there’s some bonnie bits that will fit you. There’s a blue velvet frock for one thing. And a ribbon to go with it. I’m having a sort out just now. And when I’ve sorted out, you’re the queanie that’s going to get the fine surprise, or my name’s not Annie Frigg!”
Janie emerged as always, empty handed but full-visioned after an encounter with Annie, and with but one small doubt, how to share the delight of this new promise with Gertie, who could never see that something to look forward to, and something to dream about, were such glad things, even when you knew within yourself that they might never come true.
The writing is wonderful, managing to give a real flavour of the local speech without ever becoming hard for standard English speakers to understand. It’s told in the third person, in the language of adults, but the perspective comes almost entirely through the lens of eight-year-old Janie’s observant but sometimes uncomprehending eyes. So it’s up to the reader to fill in the blanks, and sometimes it’s in these spaces that the true pathos of Janie’s life is shown – a pathos Janie doesn’t feel at this young age. Her mother comes from a respectable and rather well-off family, and sometimes they visit Janie’s grandmother – another warm and loving, if occasional, presence in Janie’s life. But her grandfather’s reaction to Liza and Janie lets the reader know how badly the family feels Liza has disgraced them, and gives us pointers as to how she fell from here all the way down to the Lane. It’s a hard story, told with warmth and empathy and no bitterly pointed finger of blame from the adult Kesson.
As well as her clear-sighted but sympathetic portrayal of the Lane and its inhabitants, Kesson also has an excellent eye for the landscape and nature of the area, and the ability to weave her fine descriptive prose seamlessly so that it becomes part of the story. Their mutual love of the countryside is part of the bond between mother and daughter.
The wind had begun to threaten the air. Passionately she had longed for the wind to come. To blow herself and the landscape sky high into movement and coherence again. Almost she had been aware of the wind’s near fierceness. Ready to plunge the furious hillside burns down into the Cladda river. To hurl the straws all over the dykes. To toss the chaff into the eyes of the protesting people, bending before it, flapping in their clothes like scarecrows. To sting the trees in Carron wood into hissing rebellion. To give the land some loud, loud cry, other than that of pain.
When the Cruelty Man takes Janie off to the orphanage, the story suddenly contracts, with years covered in just a few pages. This feels a bit disconcerting, but actually I think it probably works better than it would have if Kesson had devoted more time to that section. One gathers that her time there was neither wonderful nor terrible – she was just stuck in a kind of limbo until her life could resume. The real story is of the Lane, and of the love between child and mother that transcends the things that society determines to be good parenting. The ending is bittersweet – the tragedies of Janie’s young life tempered always by the knowledge that she will survive and rise. A beautiful book that challenges the reader to be slow to judge – to accept that love and even joyousness can sometimes be found in the darkest circumstances. Highly recommended.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
June 24, 2012
Really enjoyed this book of life in northern Scotland (Elgin) in the, well it doesn't say but I imagine sometime in the 1920s or 1930s. Very unflinching and actually kind of shocking to read the descriptions of a prostitute's lane and the rough life, complete with women swearing and leathering each other until blood spilt, all from a child's point of view, especially considering this was written in 1958. The child is Janie, who talks about her life in the lane with her mother from an 8 year old's perspective. The contrast between their life and the life of her grandmother when they went to visit her out in the country is really compelling.
The second half of the book follows Janie to the children's home where she is taken, in Aberdeenshire. The style of the book changed from little stories and descriptions to a kind of stream of consciousness where Janie is preparing to leave the home. I found this harder to get on with at times, and it felt a bit like trying to be Sunset Song with descriptions of the peesies and the land. On one level it worked, on another it was kind of confusing, and the second half seemed very hurried. The book had some beautiful descriptions of things and Jessie Kesson had a lovely way of painting a picture with words. I especially loved a scene where Janie's ailing mother comes to visit her in the home and mentions she is losing her sight, and Janie thinks of all the things her mother pointed out to her:
"All the things I know, she taught me, God. The good things, I mean. She could make the cherry trees bloom above Dean’s Ford, even when it was winter. Hidden birds betrayed their names the instant she heard their song. She gave the nameless little rivers high hill sources and deep sea endings. She put a singing seal in Loch Na Boune and a lament on the long, lonely winds. She saw a legend in the canna flowers and a plough amongst the stars....And I would be blind now, if she had never lent me her eyes."
The second half of the book follows Janie to the children's home where she is taken, in Aberdeenshire. The style of the book changed from little stories and descriptions to a kind of stream of consciousness where Janie is preparing to leave the home. I found this harder to get on with at times, and it felt a bit like trying to be Sunset Song with descriptions of the peesies and the land. On one level it worked, on another it was kind of confusing, and the second half seemed very hurried. The book had some beautiful descriptions of things and Jessie Kesson had a lovely way of painting a picture with words. I especially loved a scene where Janie's ailing mother comes to visit her in the home and mentions she is losing her sight, and Janie thinks of all the things her mother pointed out to her:
"All the things I know, she taught me, God. The good things, I mean. She could make the cherry trees bloom above Dean’s Ford, even when it was winter. Hidden birds betrayed their names the instant she heard their song. She gave the nameless little rivers high hill sources and deep sea endings. She put a singing seal in Loch Na Boune and a lament on the long, lonely winds. She saw a legend in the canna flowers and a plough amongst the stars....And I would be blind now, if she had never lent me her eyes."
August 3, 2022
“Ootlins. Queer folk who were “oot” and who, perversely enough, never had any desire to be “in”.”
The White Bird Passes is a fantastic, beautiful and poignant look at the life of the inhabitants of The Lady’s Lane in the North of Scotland through the eyes of our young protagonist Janie MacVean.
The women of the lane are brash, opinionated, territorial and strong- the way many impoverished women have to be in a world run by men. In this place of disrepute there is a sense of community and pride that runs deep, one you will only find in community of outcasts. Young Janie knows no other place and doesn’t notice the hardships faced by many. For her, these people are family and friends; the comfort of home.
Janies relationship with her mother highlights this especially. With no father on the scene, Janies mother does what she has to do to put food on the table. This is a world where women stayed at home and men provided for their family. What is a woman to do when no man is there to provide and you are the black sheep of an almost wealthy family?
Janies mother sums up what it means to be an Ootlin. She is scorned, judged, disowned and used by those around her because of the life she has been granted and the choices she has made. But the love between mother and daughter is beautiful, strong and unseen by those around them. It’s clear that Kesson has written this book as a love letter to her own mother and her own ladies of the lane; much like Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain to his mother and Glasgow.
This is a short novel at 150 pages but each one brings to life the characters and setting that surround Janie. The use of Doric interspersed throughout was lovely to see especially as when this was written it would have been more frowned upon.
I now understand why for many authors Jessie and The White Bird Passes were an inspiration to their own writing. I can see many of the characters I have met in Scottish novels within this little book.
The White Bird Passes is a fantastic, beautiful and poignant look at the life of the inhabitants of The Lady’s Lane in the North of Scotland through the eyes of our young protagonist Janie MacVean.
The women of the lane are brash, opinionated, territorial and strong- the way many impoverished women have to be in a world run by men. In this place of disrepute there is a sense of community and pride that runs deep, one you will only find in community of outcasts. Young Janie knows no other place and doesn’t notice the hardships faced by many. For her, these people are family and friends; the comfort of home.
Janies relationship with her mother highlights this especially. With no father on the scene, Janies mother does what she has to do to put food on the table. This is a world where women stayed at home and men provided for their family. What is a woman to do when no man is there to provide and you are the black sheep of an almost wealthy family?
Janies mother sums up what it means to be an Ootlin. She is scorned, judged, disowned and used by those around her because of the life she has been granted and the choices she has made. But the love between mother and daughter is beautiful, strong and unseen by those around them. It’s clear that Kesson has written this book as a love letter to her own mother and her own ladies of the lane; much like Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain to his mother and Glasgow.
This is a short novel at 150 pages but each one brings to life the characters and setting that surround Janie. The use of Doric interspersed throughout was lovely to see especially as when this was written it would have been more frowned upon.
I now understand why for many authors Jessie and The White Bird Passes were an inspiration to their own writing. I can see many of the characters I have met in Scottish novels within this little book.
November 7, 2014
The writing brought vividness to the scenes in the Lane and the Orphanage, indeed throughout. It tells the story of a young girl in a life of unnecessary deprivation at risk of being whisked away from her mother by the authorities and placed in a Home. I imagine it would be quite shocking in 1958 when it was written. This autobiographical novel grants a description of a wonderful young individual whose future is restricted by her position in society rather than by her talents and good character. I’m puzzled a lot by the ending and what message should it have for me?
January 11, 2014
This edition has an eight page introduction to this book. The book is way too short. Although in the short telling of this very large tale, you meet a lovely strong girl with such exuberance for life in-spite of her very hard life. Beautiful clear descriptions of the slums she called home and the people who were her neighbors. At 8 years old she is removed from her mother's care and sent to an orphanage where she lives until she is 16. Her grandparents are middle class people with a nice home and land, but because she was born out of wedlock her strict Presbyterian grandfather won't sit at a dinner table with her or her mother or speak to them at all. They would visit her grandparents home on rare occasion and grandma showed them love and fed them, but grandpa left the house. How very sad that because of a hard, unforgiving heart and misplaced religious views this innocent child lived the life she did. And yet she only saw the beauty and the whimsy in everything. Maybe it was God's plan for her after all to make her who she ultimately became. He gave her a beautiful gift that I envy!
October 29, 2017
Amazing book. Haunting and atmospheric, it will stay with me long after I have finished it. In less than one hundred years the world that changes almost entirely. Janie McVean is a character I won’t ever forget.
June 18, 2017
This short autobiographical novel is the story of young Janie MacVean growing up in poverty in the backstreets of a Scottish city in the 1920s. It’s a stark and vivid portrayal of her life and times, but we have becomes perhaps inured to such misery memoirs and I don’t think this one adds anything new to the genre. Lyrically written and often moving when Janie fails to understand the world around her, it’s engaging and gentle for the most part, and well worth reading.
July 28, 2022
I loved the Lane seen through the eyes of young Janie
May 25, 2017
Short and sweet.
Felt a bit thrown in at the deep end with names,phrases,people and places,mentioned in a way that made me feel I'd missed a book.
However,once I got over that,it was bright,full of charm and colourful characters.
Janie is a great character.
Felt a bit thrown in at the deep end with names,phrases,people and places,mentioned in a way that made me feel I'd missed a book.
However,once I got over that,it was bright,full of charm and colourful characters.
Janie is a great character.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 29, 2025
I just didn’t rated this short book, in great part because I found it unconvincing in language & character.
Ms Keeson was from the Inverness area. We are to believe the book is set in Elgin, a moderately sized semi rural town some 50 miles away. The N.E of Scotland has a very specific dialect which is not present initially in the book. It gets better in the second half. For example the term ‘hen’, used to describe a female is only specific to W. central Scotland. Love, spelt ‘luv’, ‘scram’, use of the word ‘broke’. Non of theses words, or there context ring true for me, & if I am going to invest time in a book I need to be convinced of its authenticity.
The women of the lane, were described as cruel, lacking in empathy, especially during the passage describing the suicide, and one dimensional. Women known as Battle axe, & Duchess, I just couldn’t place them in this semi rural town.
Even in the poorest of communities there would be a sense of family, & looking out for your members of your community. The description & attitude to a neighbours suicide I found shocking. Couldn’t believe it would be spoken about so graphically, so publicly….
Janie obviously adores her mother, but there was little to stir any sympathy for her in me.
And then things change. In the second half of the book language is much more authentic & descriptive, it flows better. I cant help feeling the routine, security and limited education the orphanage provided for Janie was a positive.
Why her mother’s family didn’t step in is unexplained, but analysis & explanation is not what WBP is about. A journal on a poverty stricken childhood, with I think a generous helping of artistic license.
Ms Keeson was from the Inverness area. We are to believe the book is set in Elgin, a moderately sized semi rural town some 50 miles away. The N.E of Scotland has a very specific dialect which is not present initially in the book. It gets better in the second half. For example the term ‘hen’, used to describe a female is only specific to W. central Scotland. Love, spelt ‘luv’, ‘scram’, use of the word ‘broke’. Non of theses words, or there context ring true for me, & if I am going to invest time in a book I need to be convinced of its authenticity.
The women of the lane, were described as cruel, lacking in empathy, especially during the passage describing the suicide, and one dimensional. Women known as Battle axe, & Duchess, I just couldn’t place them in this semi rural town.
Even in the poorest of communities there would be a sense of family, & looking out for your members of your community. The description & attitude to a neighbours suicide I found shocking. Couldn’t believe it would be spoken about so graphically, so publicly….
Janie obviously adores her mother, but there was little to stir any sympathy for her in me.
And then things change. In the second half of the book language is much more authentic & descriptive, it flows better. I cant help feeling the routine, security and limited education the orphanage provided for Janie was a positive.
Why her mother’s family didn’t step in is unexplained, but analysis & explanation is not what WBP is about. A journal on a poverty stricken childhood, with I think a generous helping of artistic license.
October 4, 2021
Beautifully written and poignant novel about a girl growing up in the Northeast of Scotland. The girl, like Jessie Kesson, lives for much of her childhood in an orphanage as her mother is no longer able to care for her. Jessie captures the emotional life of the girl with great skill, allowing us to experience the emotional turmoil of being taken from her mother which shakes, but doesn't destroy, her expansive and poetic imagination and passion for life. Like other readers, I found the ending abrupt and wondered if the ebook I was reading wasn't complete. I read the book while staying not far from where it takes place and Jessie captures the beauty of that part of Scotland, the language of the people, while not shirking from describing the difficult and impoverished life of the people in the communty where the main character and her mother struggle to survive. Thanks goes to Jenni Fagan, another great Scottish female writer, for recommending Jessie Kesson!
September 28, 2025
There were a few very funny moments for me that reminded me of my own childhood. One being Janie's upset over her Aunt's treasure box and what she said in retaliation of that, and how her mother called her wicked for it 😂 but that's truly what a wee kid would think, what I might have thought 😂 Then there was the story of the ghost down the well 😂😂 I have most definitely been on the other end of that, being the scared kid 😂 Finally, when Janie become worried about her mother, making her promise not to die, oh how I used to be the exact same 😂 I really enjoyed this book, I love to read books set in my country 🏴❤️
April 4, 2012
I'm probably predisposed to liking this - she went to the same primary school as I did. But I did like it, she created very vivid images and characters. The narrative voice was confusing at times though.
August 3, 2021
One might form a misleading impression from the opening of The White Bird Passes. A young girl called Janie lives in a quaint rustic part of Scotland where she runs errands for her neighbours in exchange for little gifts, or sometimes just the promise of them.
In fact this book is not suitable for younger children, a fact that becomes clear when one of the residents commits suicide early in the book. The woman was one of the more generous ladies that Janie helps, and a resident who was able to pay for her goods at the shops without running up credit. She was able to do this because she was a prostitute.
As if that is not enough, the woman also passed a few of her clients onto Janie’s mother, Liza. Janie sometimes passes a little bit of money she earns from her errands to her mother too, so that Liza can be kept in tobacco.
Despite the folksy setting this is a community that lives in dire poverty. There is some moral disapproval for Mysie Walsh, the prostitute who killed herself. However the residents are only mildly censorious because Mysie was generous towards them, and they have very little.
For wealthy people who like to think that poor people are materialistic, I can report this is true. Janie thinks about food a lot. She visits a local fortune teller who is part of a passing event because the woman sometimes gives her food. A visit to her grandmother is similarly welcome because of the opportunity for a decent meal. Little financial rewards and nice-looking trinkets also attract her attention.
Indeed what else would we expect from a girl raised in poverty. One has to have a full stomach and a comfortable standard of living to turn one’s attention to other matters.
The best passages in the book are these early ones around Our Lady’s Lane that deal with Janie’s upbringing. However this existence cannot go on forever. The authorities are looking into Janie’s life, and are not too happy with the idea of a child being raised by a prostitute in a household with little money.
As a result, Janie is sent off to a drab orphanage where she is made to do unpleasant chores by an organisation run by rigid and dour matriarchs. I am not especially opposed to government intervention or the social services getting involved in struggling families, but this is one clear case where matters are worsened by their interference.
Janie does not live in a good household. However she is taken out of a comfortable and safe community, and moved to an institution that treats its charges like convicts who need to be given hard labour for their supposed crimes, even though they have not done anything wrong. Liza may not be a great mother, but she provides love for her child, which Janie does not find in the Skeyne orphanage.
Kesson’s story breaks down a little here. Janie’s time at the orphanage is skated over, and we do not really get much a feeling for what happens there. Instead we skip to the time of her release many years later. By this time, Liza is dying of syphilis and Janie gets to spend time with her mother for what little of her life is left. However the last couple of chapters feel a little scattered, and lose some of their emotional impact.
Jessie Kesson is essentially telling the story of her own childhood here. There is nothing wrong with this, and many good autobiographical books have been released. It would be interesting to know if she was capable of writing well about stories that lay outside her own experience. As it stands, The White Bird Passes is an interesting enough work, but it is easy to see why it is largely forgotten today.
In fact this book is not suitable for younger children, a fact that becomes clear when one of the residents commits suicide early in the book. The woman was one of the more generous ladies that Janie helps, and a resident who was able to pay for her goods at the shops without running up credit. She was able to do this because she was a prostitute.
As if that is not enough, the woman also passed a few of her clients onto Janie’s mother, Liza. Janie sometimes passes a little bit of money she earns from her errands to her mother too, so that Liza can be kept in tobacco.
Despite the folksy setting this is a community that lives in dire poverty. There is some moral disapproval for Mysie Walsh, the prostitute who killed herself. However the residents are only mildly censorious because Mysie was generous towards them, and they have very little.
For wealthy people who like to think that poor people are materialistic, I can report this is true. Janie thinks about food a lot. She visits a local fortune teller who is part of a passing event because the woman sometimes gives her food. A visit to her grandmother is similarly welcome because of the opportunity for a decent meal. Little financial rewards and nice-looking trinkets also attract her attention.
Indeed what else would we expect from a girl raised in poverty. One has to have a full stomach and a comfortable standard of living to turn one’s attention to other matters.
The best passages in the book are these early ones around Our Lady’s Lane that deal with Janie’s upbringing. However this existence cannot go on forever. The authorities are looking into Janie’s life, and are not too happy with the idea of a child being raised by a prostitute in a household with little money.
As a result, Janie is sent off to a drab orphanage where she is made to do unpleasant chores by an organisation run by rigid and dour matriarchs. I am not especially opposed to government intervention or the social services getting involved in struggling families, but this is one clear case where matters are worsened by their interference.
Janie does not live in a good household. However she is taken out of a comfortable and safe community, and moved to an institution that treats its charges like convicts who need to be given hard labour for their supposed crimes, even though they have not done anything wrong. Liza may not be a great mother, but she provides love for her child, which Janie does not find in the Skeyne orphanage.
Kesson’s story breaks down a little here. Janie’s time at the orphanage is skated over, and we do not really get much a feeling for what happens there. Instead we skip to the time of her release many years later. By this time, Liza is dying of syphilis and Janie gets to spend time with her mother for what little of her life is left. However the last couple of chapters feel a little scattered, and lose some of their emotional impact.
Jessie Kesson is essentially telling the story of her own childhood here. There is nothing wrong with this, and many good autobiographical books have been released. It would be interesting to know if she was capable of writing well about stories that lay outside her own experience. As it stands, The White Bird Passes is an interesting enough work, but it is easy to see why it is largely forgotten today.
November 7, 2025
In this autobiographical novel about her early life in a 1920s Scottish slum lane, Kesson manages to evoke considerable sympathy for her young protagonist, Janie, and even Janie’s neglectful prostitute mother, Liza. The third-person POV restricts itself to what Janie, the child, sees and experiences but does not always understand. Therefore, the reader is provided with no backstory to explain Liza’s fall into prostitution, a way of life that will eventually bring on disease. As neglectful as Liza is, there is love between mother and child, and it is wrenching to see the little girl removed from her “Mam” at age eight-and-a-half by the authorities and sent to a training home for orphans a hundred miles away, in Skeyne (Skene) Aberdeenshire.
Many readers love this novel and state that the Scottish dialect was no barrier to their experience of it. For me, this was not quite the case. I had similar trouble with Kesson’s Glitter of Mica, which I read last month. Reading both, I made regular use of online dictionaries of Scottish, which certainly helped me, but I think other idiosyncrasies of Kesson’s diction also created problems for me. I often wasn’t sure that I was fully taking in Kesson’s meaning. Additionally, in spite of a joyful and trusting little child at the centre of this novel, the subject matter is unrelentingly sad and grim. I think it’s fair to say that even great admirers of the novel, those for whom the story greatly resonated, wouldn’t call it “enjoyable”. The most I can say is that I appreciated it, that it allowed me to enter a world I otherwise might not have. Overall, though, my sense is that Kesson is not quite the writer for me.
Thanks, as always, to my GR friend, Laura, for setting up a discussion group and for her illuminating remarks which deepened my experience of the book.
Many readers love this novel and state that the Scottish dialect was no barrier to their experience of it. For me, this was not quite the case. I had similar trouble with Kesson’s Glitter of Mica, which I read last month. Reading both, I made regular use of online dictionaries of Scottish, which certainly helped me, but I think other idiosyncrasies of Kesson’s diction also created problems for me. I often wasn’t sure that I was fully taking in Kesson’s meaning. Additionally, in spite of a joyful and trusting little child at the centre of this novel, the subject matter is unrelentingly sad and grim. I think it’s fair to say that even great admirers of the novel, those for whom the story greatly resonated, wouldn’t call it “enjoyable”. The most I can say is that I appreciated it, that it allowed me to enter a world I otherwise might not have. Overall, though, my sense is that Kesson is not quite the writer for me.
Thanks, as always, to my GR friend, Laura, for setting up a discussion group and for her illuminating remarks which deepened my experience of the book.
January 1, 2021
Writer Jenni Fagan posted a photo of a Jessie Kesson book on Twitter recently and, as an ardent admirer of Jenni's work, I wanted to check it out. I'm ashamed to say I hadn't heard of Kesson prior to this. I'm so very glad to have discovered her now and that my first read of 2021 has been a phenomenal one. "The White Bird Passes" is semi-autobiographical, mirroring elements of Kesson's own early life. Protagonist Janie is an entirely loveable wee lassie. Even on the rare occasion where she has a mean "think", she's still adorable. The love of her life is her Mammy and, whilst it's difficult to tell if that's reciprocated, there's no doubt that love exists between them. I loved the juxtaposition of the Lane with the home of Janie's Grandparents and then life at the Orphanage. Towards the end of the book, Janie talks about happy endings. The quote "happiness always lay either in the past or in the future" is one of the most beautiful and profound I've ever heard. Reflecting on the era represented in the book I could cry for all those women and girls who never had the opportunities we take for granted today. I loved every element of this book, including the dialect and references to old songs. I've ordered the biography written by Isobel Murray as I'm fascinated to learn more about Jessie Kesson and how she managed to overcome such a difficult start in life. I wish I'd know about her work years ago and intend to devour everything I can get my hands on. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Jenni Fagan for posting that Tweet.
June 7, 2017
I received this book for free from NetGalley.
This is a fine book by Jessie Kesson in which she fictionalises and reworks her childhood into a magical, moving novel. Set in Elgin and Skene in Scotland in the 1920s, we are shown the poverty and chaos of young Janie MacVean's life - conversely, we also see the rough, close warmth of her community and the sunny moments in Janie's relationship with her mother.
This book tackles large issues through a child's eyes and it is beautifully done. And Janie's love of poetry and literature, filling her thoughts, shines through the book.
'If Donnie turned into a giraffe right now, Janie's thoughts raced, the Trustee would get such a surprise that he wouldn't be able to utter another word. The ridiculous thought got out of control, spreading itself grinningly across Janie's face.
"Of his bones are coral made...
Nothing of him that doth fade."
The lines rushed to Janie's rescue. She steadied her thoughts against them:
"But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange."
Her grin wrecked itself on the wide and wonderful phrase. Into something rich and strange. She could look with serious face now at the small Trustee. At Mrs Thane. At all the Trustees. She wouldn't have changed places with one of them. Not for anything. They were all so old. Nothing was ridiculous, or rich, or strange to them any more.'
This is a fine book by Jessie Kesson in which she fictionalises and reworks her childhood into a magical, moving novel. Set in Elgin and Skene in Scotland in the 1920s, we are shown the poverty and chaos of young Janie MacVean's life - conversely, we also see the rough, close warmth of her community and the sunny moments in Janie's relationship with her mother.
This book tackles large issues through a child's eyes and it is beautifully done. And Janie's love of poetry and literature, filling her thoughts, shines through the book.
'If Donnie turned into a giraffe right now, Janie's thoughts raced, the Trustee would get such a surprise that he wouldn't be able to utter another word. The ridiculous thought got out of control, spreading itself grinningly across Janie's face.
"Of his bones are coral made...
Nothing of him that doth fade."
The lines rushed to Janie's rescue. She steadied her thoughts against them:
"But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange."
Her grin wrecked itself on the wide and wonderful phrase. Into something rich and strange. She could look with serious face now at the small Trustee. At Mrs Thane. At all the Trustees. She wouldn't have changed places with one of them. Not for anything. They were all so old. Nothing was ridiculous, or rich, or strange to them any more.'
March 5, 2021
A poignant and tenderly written story that documents poverty and privation in the north east during the 1920s. The book has all the pain and tragedy of a Dickens family in East London, but is written with a modernist economy of words, almost a prose poem that makes carefully judged use of the Doric to capture the essence of the language, without making it incomprehensible to those not familiar with it. Sad and beautiful with a powerful message about the oppression of women.
August 22, 2022
Not great literature but a fascinating read. Written by a woman who grew up in extreme poverty with fear of the rent man and the cruelty man an ever present influence. Suicide brought about by poverty and despair is described matter of factly. Janie’s mother tries desperately to keep her daughter out of the orphanage but is too frightened to carry through her plan of running away together. Janie’s time at the orphanage fails to break her spirit and she looks forward to academic achievement.
February 28, 2020
Wow, its so good to read a book that i can picture the places. A town nearby to me that i often go to. Also the local lingo although being English it can be a little difficult to understand.
A lovely short book for the book club compared to the near on 600 pages of the previous book choice.
An all too sudden ending though
A lovely short book for the book club compared to the near on 600 pages of the previous book choice.
An all too sudden ending though
July 13, 2025
An interesting read taking place in locations not that far from me in North East Scotland, which made it seem more interesting as it was like local history came alive.
I liked the main character and for most parts the direct story telling, however the last couple of chapters and the ending seemed a bit of a rambling mess.
I liked the main character and for most parts the direct story telling, however the last couple of chapters and the ending seemed a bit of a rambling mess.
June 19, 2020
Unusual language told from the heart
I liked the undertow of the story the way the mother Liza and Janie the child fitted together. It was a hard cruel world in the lane but Janie understood it well and learned many lessons from the rough inhabitants.
I liked the undertow of the story the way the mother Liza and Janie the child fitted together. It was a hard cruel world in the lane but Janie understood it well and learned many lessons from the rough inhabitants.
March 15, 2021
A warm and humorous look at young janies life growing up in a poor neighbourhood in Elgin called the lane. She learned to survive on little just living with her mum. Her neighbours were all quite close and looked out for each other.
July 2, 2022
A very good novel about a girl growing up in a deprived Glasgow area. The times away from the city are what makes it special for me. Jessie Kesson has a wonderful ability when it comes to rural description.
October 21, 2018
I have just reread this semi-autobiographical fiction. It is a gem I am sure I will read again.
April 5, 2021
3.5
Beautiful short novella, only the ending felt a little abrupt.
Beautiful short novella, only the ending felt a little abrupt.
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