Glasgow woman recalls childhood escape to Loch Lomond in new book

Glasgow Times

04-05-2025

Moira Forrester grew up on the former Lenzie Street in Springburn during the 1940s as the city began to recover from the Second World War.
The 82-year-old recalled the day that her father Alex came home and announced to the family that he'd bought a boat, which he called 'Sanda'.
Moira Forrester pictured at home in Bearsden with her second book, 'The story of a ship's lifeboat called Sanda'. She is pictured with husband Victor who is holding Moira's first book 'The story of a black cat called Cheech'. (Image: Colin Mearns)
From then on, the family would make routine visits to Loch Lomond to 'escape' from the city for a while and enjoy the peace of the countryside.
Moira said: 'I was almost five years old when my father bought the boat. We had our first holiday that year at the Fair Fortnight in July.
'We ended up continuing to do that every weekend. My father just wanted to get out into the countryside, and so Loch Lomond, it was.
'I decided to write the book for my own family to describe to them what life was like to a certain extent in the 1940s and 1950s and how we escaped.
'We had this place that we would escape to, which was quite wonderful and very, very empty in those days.
'Nobody really had cars and no one really went on holiday in the 1940s, as after the war most people had nothing.'
(Image: Colin Mearns)
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Moira explained that before owning 'Sanda', the closest her father had ever gotten to sailing was in a rowing boat at his local pond.
The family lived in a top-floor room and kitchen in the North of the city before later moving to a tenement property on Springburn Road, which had indoor plumbing and heating.
The book aptly titled The story of a ship's lifeboat called Sanda reflects on Moira's treasured memories of spending her childhood out on the water.
(Image: Colin Mearns)
It was published in September last year after the now Bearsden resident was approached by Amanda Sinclair, an illustrator keen to bring the story to life.
The book features a variety of colourful illustrations as well as enhanced family photographs, some of which were taken on a 1930s box camera that Moira's father owned.
Handout photograph of Moira Forrester as a child with her mother Mary Marshall (Image: Moira Forrester) Handout photograph of Moira Forrester, left, as a child with her sister Sandra and their father Alex Marshall pictured at Inchtavannach, Loch Lomond. (Image: Moira Forrester)
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She added: 'My school teachers would probably collapse with shock if they knew I ever had a book published.
'The first one I wrote was the Story of a Black Cat called Cheech. That was written for my two grandchildren who live in France.
'Cheech died, and our grandchildren were upset, and I tried to say something to them about life, love, and loss, but there was a language barrier.
'So I wrote the book, and that's how this journey started. Mandy saw it thirteen years later and told me she really wanted to get it published as she didn't know any other children's book where the hero ended up dying at the end.
'Mandy then saw this latest one and said she wanted to do that one as well. Most of the book, right up until the last five pages, are modern photographs.
'The rest are very small black and white snaps taken by my father's 1930s box camera. It was very early photographs for ordinary people.
'There's equipment nowadays that can analyse the depths of the black, white, and grey and can assess what the colours would be.
'When I saw those photographs, I couldn't believe it, they were all the right colours. Mandy did an absolutely amazing job.
'I was gobsmacked when I saw the finished product. I couldn't have imagined it to have turned out as good as it did.'
Copies of Moira's book are available for purchase online.