For the Love of Willie
Written by Agnes Owens / Introduction by Heather Parry
£8.99
- Paperback
- E-Book
Fiction
Reviews
For the Love of Willie exemplifies Owens' best qualities in not much more than 100 pages... arresting and unforgettable
The Critic
I cannot wait for a new generation of readers to re-discover the work of Agnes Owens
Douglas Stewart
Agnes Owens is part of a Golden Age in Scottish literature
Guardian
Agnes Owens' hallmarks have been a frank irony, a deadpan gothic quality and a down-to-earth insistence on the surreality of most people’s normality
Ali Smith
Agnes Owens is one of Scotland's finest writers, and it's to be hoped that a new readership is about to discover that for themselves
SNACK Magazine
‘Agnes Owens was such a fine writer. Her best stories are great stories . . . she created an art that will endure’
James Kelman
About the Book
One of the List's Best Scottish Books of All Time
Peggy is sixteen, ambitious and wants to get a job to help her rise above her current predicament. Soon, she is employed at Willie Roper’s corner shop. But before long, her situation goes from bad to worse as she falls in love with her married, older employer.
Looking back to her misspent youth, Peggy, now in a psychiatric hospital, is turning her teenage exploits into a romance novel and is trying to get her bedfellow, the duchess, to read the manuscript – but she would rather read a Mills and Boon.
As we read both sides of the tale, we learn about the fate of young Peggy and how she came to be in the duchess's company; the novel culminates in a surprising narrative punch.
'A book that remains both shocking and quietly revolutionary' – Heather Parry
'Agnes Owens' hallmarks have been a frank irony, a deadpan gothic quality and a down-to-earth insistence on the surreality of most people’s normality' – Ali Smith
Published to celebrate Agnes Owens' centenary year in 2026.
The Authors
Agnes Owens
Agnes Owens was always a writer, although for the majority of her life she was preoccupied with making a living and domesticity. She married twice, brought up seven children and variously worked as a typist, cleaner and factory worker. It wasn’t until she attended an evening creative writing course that she wrote her first novel Gentlemen of the West, published in 1984 by Polygon to widespread critical acclaim; she would go on to write a further five novellas, including A Working Mother and For the Love of Willie, and three short-story collections. She died in 2014.
Heather Parry
Heather Parry is a Glasgow-based writer and editor, originally from South Yorkshire. Her debut novel, Orpheus Builds a Girl, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award and longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. She is also the author of a short story collection, This Is My Body, Given For You, and her first nonfiction book, Electric Dreams: On Sex Robots and the Failed Promises of Capitalism, was released in 2024 as part of 404 Ink’s Inklings series.
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