Walnut Shell Days

by Eileen Ramsay

In the beautiful Scottish landscape of Angus in the early 1900s, Catriona Cameron lives on her father-in-law's farm with her daughter Victoria, and mother. John, her husband, had long ago run away to live abroad but life is steady and happy without him. That is until the old man dies and leaves everything to John. Although he added the proviso that on John's death the farm becomes Catriona's, they have very little money, and to make ends meet the three women take in lodgers. And so when John reappears to claim his inheritance, he too becomes their lodger. The family begins to re-tie their emotional knots but aged 14, Victoria is starting to form ties of her own. However, her feelings for Robert do not meet with the approval of his aristocratic parents and when he goes to fight in Great War, they make it quite clear that they want the relationship to end.

250 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

About the author

Eileen Ainsworth was born on 16 December 1940 in the South-West of Scotland, where she brought up. She wrote since she was seven, but she decided become a teacher. After graduating she went to teach in the USA for a year - and stayed 18 years. She married Ian Ramsay, a Scottish mathematics scientist working on the first moon shots. They had two chidren. They returned to their native Scotland.

Her writing for children and adults has won several awards, including the Constable and Pitlochry trophies from the Scottish Association of Writers and the Romantic Novelists' Association's Elizabeth Goudge Award. In 2004 she was short listed for the Romantic Novel of the Year award.

Eileen is an honorary member of the Angus Writers Circle, was vice-president of the Scottish Association of Writers, a member of the Society of Authors and was on the committee of the Scottish branch for about six years and for four was the Secretary, and she was elected the twenty-seventh Chairman (2015-2017) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.