Long before Outlander, there was Annie S Swan, Scotland’s bestselling author of romantic novels, taking us deep into the personal lives of her characters as they fought to save stately homes or marry the right man. She wrote at least 200 full novels over her life, but Dr Amy Burge of Birmingham University feels Annie, a stalwart of The People’s Friend hasn’t had her due with her strong female characters and page-turning books. Annie probably would have blanched about writing about the real private lives of the lower classes though, but Dr Katie Barclay of Adelaide University is fascinated by them. She shows Susan how people in cramped tenements and overcrowded But and bens kept each other secrets or chose not to. From Katie’s world of servants hiding illegitimate babies to the 20th century to Scotland’s heartfelt upheavals over the Abortion Act of 1967, Kristin Hay of Strathclyde University shows it’s a more complicated story than you might think.