‘O. Douglas’ was the pseudonym of Anna Buchan (1877 – 1948). She was a daughter of the Manse, busy aunt to her older brother John’s large family and ran the household for her younger brother Walter. With the added stimulus of her literary family background, she was well placed to write the ‘mild domestic fiction’ which made her world famous.
   She was born in Fife and moved to Glasgow when she was eleven, when her father was called to the John Knox Church in the Gorbals.  She and her brothers spent their long summer holidays with their grandparents in Broughton, in the Borders.  After the birth of her youngest brother Alastair, she left school to be useful at home and to work in the parish.
   When in 1906 Walter was sent to take over the family legal and banking business in Peebles, Anna, aged 29, went with him and here they both stayed for the rest of their lives.
   From this fairly restricted life bound by family duty, she drew inspiration for all of her books.  Set variously in the Borders, Fife and Glasgow that she knew so well, the twelve novels are peopled with sharply observed characters very often drawn directly from her family and acquaintances.  Though they are “Nice Books”, she does not shy away from tragedy and loss, and the “pink sugar view of life” is seasoned with dry Scottish wit and shrewd good sense.