1979 takes place in a small fishing town called Musselburgh, situated on the east coast of Scotland. It's about a young girl who is very naive yet incredibly self-aware in the year that changed her life forever - an evocative, moving, and at times hilarious true-life story about growing up gay in a small town, finding out you're adopted, and losing your father at the age of 14. Always an outsider, the Rhona of 1979 was desperate to fit in at any cost, and here lies the bittersweet humor. At the heart of the book is the Clubhouse, a place that symbolizes all that is normal, happy, and secure. Sons with their fathers; 15 year-old boys with their girlfriends for their first underage drink. Wives with their husbands for the Christmas disco.

And behind the club, outside, Rhona and her friends are smoking, fighting, kissing, and drinking. In this darkly funny and deeply biographical first book, Rhona Cameron takes us back to a year when everything seemed to change. A new British government came to power, the 1980s were approaching, and at times life felt so precarious that it really looked like she and her family might never make it through the next year, let alone the next decade.

"A candid, open-hearted memoir....startling" says the cover & indeed to begin with it was....though not in a good way! I nearly gave up after the first two chapters as the recounting of the twelve year-old Rhona's "fumblings" (for want of a better word!) with the local heart throb & whichever of his friends he chose to share her with, made me a little uncomfortable.

Teenage years aren't easy for anyone but being a lesbian in a small town, Rhona certainly had more angst than most. While most of us will have had samesex crushes, especially on teachers, Rhona takes it to a whole new level!

Not a light-hearted read, quite sad & wistful in parts nor was it full of 70s nostalgia that I could really identify with but one I imagine Ms Cameron found cathartic to write.

On it's way as part of a package for the Spurtle Sweepstake Winner :o)

Thank you very much for this book and the rest of the amazing package!

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