JIM ELLIS

​One Summer - In this compelling story of class and religious conflict, Nathan Forrest, a Catholic, a welder and illegitimate son, is reared by his grandmother. A gifted jazz trumpeter, Nathan pursues Dorothy Jones, a Protestant girl from a middle-class family. Against a background of decaying Westburn's doomed (Scottish) shipyards and bitter Protestant-Catholic antagonisms, the young lovers seek to escape the constraints of prejudice and hate

Westburn Blues, is the story of the Rinaldis, a Scots-Italian family. It follows The Music Room and One Summer, the final part of the Westburn Trilogy. The novel is centred on Dante Rinaldi, born to Italian immigrants in the West of Scotland. Stranded by the war in Italy during a summer with his grandfather, Dante grows roots in his family’s rural homeland and, as a young adult, identifies with a band of mountain partisans fighting the fascists. Young love delayed and the Rinaldis’ struggles in post-war Scotland carry Dante into the life of Chris McCoull, a neglected adolescent who finds his calling and romance while working for a Greek-owned shipping line. Carefully researched, this authentic rendering of the Scots-Italian experience showcases Ellis’ fine eye for historical detail and deft drawing of characters – from sympathetic to truly evil.