For the Love of Willie

Peggy is turning a dark girlhood romance into a novel and is trying to get her fellow inmate at the mental hospital, known as the Duchess, to read the manuscript. Frankly the duchess would prefer a Mills and Boon, but her friend’s wartime tragi-comedy soon gets a grip on her imagination.

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.