The Bells of Scotland RoadByRuth HamiltonThe Bells of Scotland Road is talented novelist, Ruth Hamilton’s first novel based in Liverpool. She deserves congratulations for re-creating the poverty, squalor and cheerful vibrancy of Scotland Road in the years between 1930 and the Second World War, when Liverpool was bombed without mercy.In her own words Ruth Hamilton describes past times: the wash houses, Scouse Alley, Paddy’s Market, The Scaldy where children swam, the Mary Ellen’s with their baskets of fruit, the penny-dip, cherry-wobs, molasses taken from a moving cart, Lascars balancing six bowlers on their heads while carrying a fireplace and several wind-up gramophones back to their ships.The author cried and laughed while she wrote the well-researched saga and I cried and laughed while I read it.The heroine, Bridget O’Brien, one of many characters in The Bells of Scotland Road, came to Liverpool to marry a much older man whom she had never met. A man who is the father of identical twin sons, Anthony and Liam. However, they are identical only in appearance. Anthony is a schoolteacher much loved and respected by his young pupils. Liam is a Roman Catholic priest whose cold eyes and harsh interpretation of the teachings of the Church send chills down the spines of his family and parishoners. (He also sent chills down my spine while I read the novel.)Bridget and her young daughters slowly adjust to Scotland Road. The bride, whose marriage was arranged by her father, a bigoted bully, after the death of her first husband, transforms her bridegroom’s house into a comfortable home and wins his affection. She gets to know the clients who frequent, Bell’s, his pawnshop, and makes friends in the neighbourhood.The Bells of Scotland Road, a well-researched saga with a cast of believable characters, is a page turner that I enjoyed.I shall be reading more novels by Ruth Hamilton.
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