The Domestic Servant

The Domestic Servant's main character is a young girl of Irish descent living in Scotland in the 1890s. She is in service as a domestic servant and eventually has a child out of wedlock. There are many other characters in the book, but the story revolves mainly around Mary and her trials and tribulations, which include being locked in her room by her parents. It is a mixture of fact and fiction but mostly fiction. Mary Maguire is based on my grandmother who gave birth to my mother in 1895, and the circumstances surrounding her plight. To this day the father has remained a mystery. The fiction part comes in to play as to whom the father might have been and how they finally get together in spite of the obstacles in their path.