The Brow Of The Gallowgate

by Doris Davidson

Book by

Genres: Historical

Hardcover

First published April 19, 1990

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice easy read, good for a rainy winter’s day. Set in Aberdeen in the late 1800s and following the family until 1939. Albert is 24 when he meets 16 year old Bathia, both of them walking their spaniels. She is the first girl he has ever fallen for, and when she falls for him too, he overcomes her father’s objections and marries her. Her mother lends him the money to buy the shop he has always wanted along with a house on the top of Gallowgate. Here they raise their family of 2 boys and 6 girls with the help of a series of young sisters who act as nurse aids, cooks and housekeepers. One of these sisters is a slut and is dismissed, but she bears a permanent grudge against her previous employers even after some of the children and she herself emigrate to New Zealand. The underlying thread in this story is one of child abuse and the subsequent consequences later in life for both the abuser and the abused.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasant enough family saga, if a touch novelettish in places - there were rather too many instances of 'love-at-first-sight' to be believable, but the characters are engaging and the period detail seems (mostly) convincing.

Starting in 1890s Aberdeen, it follows the fortunes of Albert and Bathie Ogilvie and their growing family (some of whom end up in New Zealand) through the ups and downs of their lives through the war years, the friendships made, and the repercussions, years later, of their sacking a maid who abused their young son.

[Kirsty Hales-Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book read it over and over since I was a teen

[Marion Aranjo · Rating 2 out of 5]

ridiculous