The Rag Boiler's Daughter

Lois Shepheard

• 18 maart 2024
• 9781921869396

Samenvatting:

A sweeping account of Irish and Scottish families, The Rag Boiler's Daughter portrays one woman's resolve to provide her children with a brighter future. This story follows Maggie Gilliland from her birth in Denny, Scotland in 1865 and spans the factories of 19th Century Scotland, the Irish War of Independence, two world wars and a family's migration to Australia. Lois Shepheard was born in Lithgow, New South Wales to a father from Scotland and a mother descended from Scots. Lois was sent to learn the violin, to play reels and hornpipes and became a professional musician. Her lifetime in music has included study at the Conservatorium of New South Wales and the Talent Education School of Music, Japan. She has played in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and was a lecturer at the University of Melbourne and Victoria's Institute of Early Childhood Development. For a time, she was Professor of Viola and Director of the Suzuki Program at Western Illinois University, USA. In recent years, Lois was introduced to the fascination of family history. As she looked into the social background of her forbears, she realised the story of each of her ancestors was a book waiting to be written. This great granddaughter of a rag boiler has a son in Melbourne and a daughter in Cologne, Germany. She is the proud grandmother of two boys in Melbourne.