It appears in all the early Scottish collections (as far back as the 1700s) played as a sort of march/reel in A/Amix.

The grandfather is a misanthrope, who waits for death in his tiny house, his body deteriorating from a lifetime in the coal mines. Tulloch continues his brilliant melding of Alan Silitoe and Roddy Doyle in this, his second novel, once again mixing humor, despair, anger, and hope in a unabashedly social novel that tugs the heartstrings until they come close to breaking the heart. Sometimes it all felt like a caricature of the region, the old miner, the toe-rag, the crushing poverty, the drugs and delinquency.The Grandfather, who didn't previously know of his existence, is infirm, an ex-miner suffering from what I took to be vibration white finger. Not with these bonny designs, which come complete with translations to celebrate your favourite Northern expressions. Bonnie Lad is an expression that means 'hello, how are you' in Newcastle upon Tyne - as in ‘Alreet Bonnie Lad'.

Back in the days when we had potteries, women were employed to scrub off the stray bits of clay from part-fired pottery - usually the parts where the two halves of a mold joined, leaving a little ridge of clay which was scrubbed off with a hard brush. The bottom of the saggar was made by hammering another piece of clay through an iron ring to form the shape, using a wooden mallet - he was the saggar maker's bottom knocker. For both of them, however, this new relationship is increasingly threatened by forces from the past.For fans of The Season Ticket, several characters from that make appearances here, including the aforementioned Macca, as well as Gemma, Rusty, and even Sewell. I knew how the book would end - there are certain rules in literature that this one seemed in no way minded to defy - but it was a good journey, featuring some moments of pure tragedy, entertaining support characters (Audrey in particular, with her different coloured towels - genius), and a dramatic finale.