Mick

Mick Crossan is a ‘homer’, removed by social services from his widowed mother and slum home in the Gorbals and placed in ‘care’.

Along with his sister, Mick is forcibly removed from the slum for his ‘moral protection’, but faces a life of abuse, first at the hands of priests and nuns, and then on farms as cheap labour. Through it all Mick’s spirit burns bright, and his determination to find his family and reclaim his identity draws him back to Glasgow and eventual happiness.

In 1950s Scotland, thousands of children were removed from their families for a ‘better life’ in the rural idyll of the Scottish Highlands as ‘boarded-out’ children.

Willie Orr deftly writes with a lightness of touch, and addresses a rarely talked about aspect of recent Scottish history.

Lynn Abrams - Professor of Modern History - University of Glasgow
Between the 1860s and the 1970s, Scotland boarded out thousands of children requiring care, many of them placed with foster parents in rural parts of the country. Mick is a moving and chastening novel in which we follow the fortunes of one of those children moved from pillar to post, mistreated and abused by those the state entrusted with his care but ultimately finding a good life for himself. While the majority of ‘boarded-outs’ received adequate care and some were treated as equal members of the family, the fate of the unlucky ones deserves our attention. It warns us against complacency and reminds us that vulnerable children are the most deserving recipients of our compassion and support.