Roses are Amber Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 September 2021Lofty Issues is a family tale with touches of humour all set in Glasgow.

The story covers several generations of the Findlay family and spans roughly a hundred years through the family tree.

On a particularly hot Saturday, rather a surprise for Scotland, Tom Findlay has been summoned to her mother’s house to find a jam pan which is somewhere up in her loft. When he eventually finds the pan amongst years of hoarded and broken items, a family photograph album falls from it. Tom decides to take a closer look at the photos back at home; the photos become dislodged and when Tom and his wife Gillian and son David try to rearrange them, they discover odd words written on the backs of them.

It soon becomes obvious that this was Granny Meg’s family album, and she has used it to create a trail of signs for a family treasure hunt. So next Saturday, Tom, with the help of his son David, is back in the loft searching for further clues.

Chapters dot back and forth between the current generation of Findlays and those that went before them, as details about the family heirlooms and each family member is fleshed out.

The story is sprinkled with Scottish themes, including a set of bagpipes and ship building on the Clyde. These go well with the strong family bonds that the Findlay family have nurtured and handed down.

I enjoyed the treasure hunt as well as the historical elements. Mac Black’s wry humour shines through, but doesn’t overwhelm the writing. It’s a book filled with nostalgia for past times which would bring a smile to the face of most readers.