Notes

Even in the worst days of the slump, the McQueens kept their chins up. One by one their neighbours had departed for the workhouse, their last poor sticks of furniture carted off by the bailiffs. But even though there mightn't be much on the table, the McQueen house constantly echoed with laughter. It was the family's watchword - when all else failed, you could always laugh. Like many of the people of the Fifteen Streets, the McQueens were as blunt as they were big-hearted. They had views on everything and everybody, and woe betide anyone who went against the grain. But when Bridget McQueen came home with her new husband, proudly carrying his bairn, you could have heard a pin drop in that house. For nothing had prepared them for the shock of having a black man in the family...