It was a wet, windy Sunday in February 1955 and I was visiting my grandparents in Portobello. My Auntie was there too with her two children and as usual, the children were told to go through and leave the adults to have their blather.

Here we are sitting in the cold front room, myself and two cousins with nothing much to do. We had read the Sunday Post, mainly oor Willie and the Broons and my cousin Ethel was looking to see what was hidden under the cushion on the settee and she drew out with a flourish The News of the World. We knew that we should not read this paper and were surprised at our grandparents double standards in having it in their house. We all sat down and Ethel read aloud an article about several women in England who had become pregnant when their husbands were away fighting in the Second World War. The women wanted to to prove that they were having virgin births.

The following weekend, I was walking along Portobello prom with my friend Sheila. As we passed a group of boys, one of them shouted ‘they are just a couple of virgins’.

Sheila turned to me asking ‘what is a virgin?’

Having heard the News of the World story, I was able to tell her that it is someone who is born without a father!!!!

Marjory Taylor