Margaret Thomson Davis – författare

Goodmans of Glassford Street is the story of a successful but old-fashioned family department store and the lives and conflicts of the people who work in it, including the strong-willed matriarch Abigail Goodman. Douglas Benson, Abigail's son-in-law, is determined to gain control of the store and completely modernise it. He becomes more and more ruthless and devious in his methods to oust Abigail but Abigail is determined to hold on to the business and keep it as it is. She and her late husband, Tom, had built the business up together. All her memories of her much-loved husband are tied up with the store. As the struggle for control of the store escalates, Abigail's son John presents the family with another crisis. A serial killer is stalking the closes and wynds of Edinburgh and it looks like John may be a suspect. It's a bitter blow to the Goodman family at an already uncertain time. Goodmans of Glassford Street is a powerful story of a family torn apart by personal conflict and the struggle for control of the business and of one woman's determination to protect both her family and her life's work.

With a handsome police officer for a husband and a brand new house in a quiet, secluded street bordering Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Mae Kelly appears to have it all. But appearances can be deceptive, and Mae soon finds the demands of living at 1 Waterside Way are more than she bargained for. Glasgow in the 1970s is also proving to be a challenging place to live for some of her neighbours. All Paul Brownlee and Clive Westley want to do is live together in peace but the spiteful Reverend Denby is determined to make sure that won't happen in Waterside Way. Meantime, Charlotte Arlington-Jones and her friend Gemma Ford are bitterly opposed to having an Asian family on the street but when her own daughter falls in love with an Asian boy, prejudices on both sides will test everyone to the limit as families are torn apart. And down the road, Doris McIvor is struggling to care for her ailing mother and fears she may end up losing her own mind. As secrets are exposed and beliefs are challenged, each household on Waterside Way must face up to its problems and find new ways to survive.

The Breadmaker''s Saga follows the story of a Glasgow working class community living through the dark days of the Depression and the Second World War. Clydend, McNair''s Bakery and the surrounding tenements, are all vividly and absorbingly depicted, as are the lives and loves of people like Catriona, a young woman trying to cope with an overbearing husband; the foreman baker Baldy Fowler and his tragic wife, Sarah; Alec Jackson, the philandering insurance salesman; and a host of other colourful characters, who face up to the ordinary challenges of life and the extraordinary challenges of war with honesty, optimism and hope. ''All human life is there, laughter and tears together.'' The Scotsman ''Mrs Davis catches the time with honest-to-goodness certainty.'' The Guardian ''Simply written with an exceptional quality of understatement, it wins instant sympathy.'' Glasgow Evening Citizen ''A Glaswegian equivalent of Coronation Street.'' Daily Express

Write from the Heart is the inspirational story of how, against all odds, Margaret Thomson Davis became a successful writer. From an early age, Margaret''s father would tell her and her younger brother frightening bedtime stories like Maria Marten and the Murder in the Red Barn and Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber. And, when her brother then had nightmares, young Margaret would make up a ''nice'' story to calm him down and get him off to sleep. At school, her natural storytelling instincts came to the fore and she would make sure that there was always a cliffhanger to the story she was telling just as the bell rang for class. And she also found it was a skill that kept the school bullies at bay. But it was a long way from telling playground stories to becoming a successful writer. Write from the Heart recounts Margaret''s personal struggles through an unhappy childhood, the premature death of her younger brother and her difficult relationship with her mother. Often, her mother would leave her father with no warning and move out of the family home, taking her son with her but leaving Margaret at home alone. But these difficult childhood experiences, coupled with an unhappy marriage of her own, gave Margaret Thomson Davis the building blocks for her career as a writer and, after the success of The Breadmakers in 1972, she has never looked back. Write from the Heart is a personal story where the truth is often stranger than fiction and where Margaret Thomson Davis''s love of Glasgow and its people shines through. A moving and hugely entertaining autobiography.

Goodmans of Glassford Street is the story of a successful but old-fashioned family department store and the lives and conflicts of the people who work in it, including the strong-willed matriarch Abigail Goodman. Douglas Benson, Abigail''s son-in-law, is determined to gain control of the store and completely modernise it. He becomes more and more ruthless and devious in his methods to oust Abigail but Abigail is determined to hold on to the business and keep it as it is. She and her late husband, Tom, had built the business up together. All her memories of her much-loved husband are tied up with the store. As the struggle for control of the store escalates, Abigail''s son John presents the family with another crisis. A serial killer is stalking the closes and wynds of Edinburgh and it looks like John may be a suspect. It''s a bitter blow to the Goodman family at an already uncertain time. Goodmans of Glassford Street is a powerful story of a family torn apart by personal conflict and the struggle for control of the business and of one woman''s determination to protect both her family and her life''s work.

Red Alert is the story of the Price family and is set in a Glasgow fire station and in the world-famous Glasgow School of Art. Kirsty Price is a nice, ordinary girl and works in the fire station serving food and drink to the firefighters. She''s happy in her work and her life except for the fact that she''s also the daughter of Simon Price, an artist and tutor at the Glasgow School of Art. He is a notorious bully, both to his students and his family, including Kirsty and her brother Johnny who is plagued with ill-health. When Johnny starts hanging around with a dubious couple who work as croupiers in the local casino he accepts a job from them looking after their flat and Kirsty and her firefighter boyfriend, Greg McFarlane, start to worry about him. Then Greg phones to say that he has been attending a fatal road traffic accident and the car involved is Johnny''s. The family is devastated but soon after Johnny''s funeral, there''s a knock at the door and Kirsty staggers back in shock when she sees who''s standing in the shadows outside. But it''s just the start of a chain of events that will tear the Price family apart. Red Alert is the compelling story of a Glasgow family which, to the outside world, looks like any other normal family but is riven with tensions and problems which escalate into a nightmare for Kirsty, Greg and her family.

Margaret Thomson Davis''s new novel is a gripping saga with plenty of twists. Double Danger tells the story of Jessica McKay, who moves to Saudi Arabia to be with her new husband, Brian. At first it seems like paradise, but after the birth of their two children, she feels threatened by terrorist attacks on the luxurious compound where they live and decides she must return home with the twins, settling in an estate that Brian has inherited in the Campsie Hills near Glasgow. It is agreed that Brian will only spend his leave from his highly paid job in Saudi with his family until he retires. Patrick, a live-in Irish gardner, is employed to clear the wild overgrown land of the estate. He is charming to Jessica but soon the children find out what he is really like. And the danger begins. Patrick''s charming manner conceals sinister schemes and when a terrible accident befalls their father on his way home to see the family the children fear the worst. Double Danger is vintage Margaret Thomson Davis - a story of suspense, betrayal and murder.

With a handsome police officer for a husband and a brand new house in a quiet, secluded street bordering Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Mae Kelly appears to have it all. But appearances can be deceptive, and Mae soon finds the demands of living at 1 Waterside Way are more than she bargained for. Glasgow in the 1970s is also proving to be a challenging place to live for some of her neighbours. All Paul Brownlee and Clive Westley want to do is live together in peace but the spiteful Reverend Denby is determined to make sure that won''t happen in Waterside Way. Meantime, Charlotte Arlington-Jones and her friend Gemma Ford are bitterly opposed to having an Asian family on the street but when her own daughter falls in love with an Asian boy, prejudices on both sides will test everyone to the limit as families are torn apart. And down the road, Doris McIvor is struggling to care for her ailing mother and fears she may end up losing her own mind. As secrets are exposed and beliefs are challenged, each household on Waterside Way must face up to its problems and find new ways to survive.

This novel tells of Alfred Cameron and his family who all enjoy a life of luxury. But their family firm is in danger from the encroaching railways and Luther Gunnet, who will do anything to raise his family up from the slums.

Beginning in Glasgow during the Jacobite Rising of 1745, The Tobacco Lords Trilogy is the epic story of two very different women - Annabelle Ramsay, the wilful and impetuous daughter of a rich Tobacco Lord, and Regina Chisholm, a child of the slums, born to a life of poverty and degradation yet determined to make something of herself. As the story unfolds, their lives and loves become tragically intertwined, and the two women become deadly enemies - rivals in an all-consuming passion that will last a lifetime and follow them from the streets of Glasgow to the shores of the New World and the splendour of colonial Williamsburg. A compelling story of romance and rivalry, The Tobacco Lords Trilogy is also a marvellous evocation of the city of Glasgow and its people in the 18th century - from the wealth and grandeur of the Tobacco Lords, the city''s thriving merchants, to the poverty and desperation of the filthy, overcrowded tenements.

The author captures the intrigue and danger of the royal court during the time of Mary, Queen of Scots, through the eyes of a young woman, Marie Hepburn. Marie''''s mo ther schemes and the outcome of her plans is murder and Mary ''''s exile in France. ''

The New Breadmakers is the long-awaited sequel to Margaret Thomson Davis' bestselling saga The Breadmakers - her classic trilogy chronicling the life and times of a Glasgow working-class community during the 1930s and '40s. Having survived everything that the Depression and the Second World War has thrown at them, the people of McNair's bakery and the surrounding tenements are now facing an uncertain future. With the Coronation of 1953, a new age is beginning, and all is by no means well in the lives of the breadmakers. Catriona McNair's husband is making her life a misery and she decides to take drastic action; her friends Julie and Sammy have become involved in a search for a long-lost daughter; Alec Jackson, the happy-go-lucky reformed philanderer, finds himself caught up in one of Glasgow's worst tragedies; and the youngsters are challenging convention in the name of romance. The New Breadmakers is the wonderfully evocative story of these and a host of other colourful Glasgow characters, as they live through the extraordinary changes of the 1950s and '60s.