‘She was greetin’ again. But there’s no need for Lorraine to be feart, since the first day of primary school, Angela has always been there to mop up her tears and snotters.’ An uplifting black comedy of love, family life and friendship, Talk of the Toun is a bittersweet coming-of-age tale set in the summer of 1985, in working class, central belt Scotland. Lifelong friends Angela and Lorraine are two very different girls, with a growing divide in their aspirations and ambitions putting their friendship under increasing strain.

Artistically gifted Angela has her sights set on art school, but lassies like Angela, from a small town council scheme, are expected to settle for a nice wee secretarial job at the local factory. Her only ally is her gallus gran, Senga, the pet psychic, who firmly believes that her granddaughter can be whatever she wants. Though Lorraine’s ambitions are focused closer to home Angela has plans for her too, and a caravan holiday to Filey with Angela’s family tests the dynamics of their relationship and has lifelong consequences for them both.

Effortlessly capturing the religious and social intricacies of 1980s Scotland, Talk of the Toun is the perfect mix of pathos and humour as the two girls wrestle with the complications of growing up and exploring who they really are.

My thanks to Helen and Thunderpoint for my review copy and for inviting me to join the blog tour.

As Helen and I live in the same corner of the world I was able to attend the launch of Talk of the Toun. During the evening Helen read from the book and brought her characters to life for the room – everyone was captivated.  I closed my eyes and was transported to 1980’s Falkirk such was the brilliance of her reading. Naturally nobody wants to be transported back to Falkirk in the 80’s so I opened my eyes again pretty quickly!

Talk of the Toun is a fantastic coming of age story following Angela and her best friend Lorraine as they cope with their teenage years as they reach the end of their time at school. This is a story which will make you laugh then cry, characters can be very ‘un-pc’ and Helen MacKinven does not shy away from addressing awkward and sensitive issues.

For two teen girls there are a wealth of daily challenges to overcome, in a predominantly Protestant town attending the Catholic school means even walking down the street can bring trouble. Now factor in their quest to lose their virginity, Angela wanting to escape her life to follow her dream of attending Art School and Lorraine having to help look after her handicapped sister and you find two young women with a story you want to read.

A highlight of Talk of the Toun is the supporting cast: Angela’s parents, her Gran (a sometime pet psychic) and cover star Bimbo the dog all bring the extra dimension you want which will bring the depth to the story and add the realism that lets the reader buy into the tale. These are people you want to read about – once you start to learn about their lives you want to know more and see how they overcome the challenges which the author has placed in their way.

I would highlight that the book is written with plenty of local flavour. Language and phrases which are all very recognisable to me (as this is the world I grew up in) MAY cause some readers not accustomed to the Central Scotland dialect some mild confusion – this should not be something that puts you off reading Talk of the Toun. It is authentic, believable and lots of the humour relies upon the language being natural.

Talk of the Toun is a strong debut novel which deserves to be read. For those of us who experienced life in the 80’s it will strike many chords and bring back so many memories.  I wonder if Helen MacKinven could put me together a soundtrack to go along with the book too?

Talk of the Toun is published by Thunderpoint Publishing and is available in paperback and digital format.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour at the sites below: