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Alex
Features in: The Stained Family Tree & The Martlets' Nest & The Road to the Isles
Alex Higgins has always known she was adopted and despite the unconditional love of her parents and her three elder brothers, she’s been the odd one out from the very start: small compared to her towering brothers, an academic among blue-collar workers, a nervous disposition (ADHD and Asperger’s) among laid-back characters, and she’s gay. All of that she can manage, except for the blunt refusal of her family to tell her about her background and the fact she doesn’t have a birth certificate. In a vain attempt to make up for her own missing roots, Alex studies history, focussing on Post-Union Scotland. She proceeds with a PhD and her grittiness gets her promoted to Professor lecturing at St Andrews in her late thirties.
During those studies she befriends Val, who is also adopted, and struggles with a dark past. When Alex meets her girlfriend Julie, her life seems complete, if not for her missing past.
But then one of her students wreaks havoc in her life. First Kenneth publicly accuses her of being a lesbian rapist and a few years later he inadvertently turns to her to trace his own family tree. Never one to resist digging in someone’s past, Alex, together with Kenneth, discovers the hidden skeletons in his family. In return, Kenneth forces the truth from her brothers and together they trace Alex’ biological parents. In that same year Alex and Kenneth also dive into Val’s troubled past.
All of this results in a birth certificate, a marriage to Julie, a rock-solid friendship with Val, an unbreakable parent-like tie with Kenneth, a closer bond with her family and a fond relationship with her biological father.
