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Val
Features in: The Stained Family Tree & The Martlets' Nest & The Road to the Isles
Val Banks was adopted by two Lewis Presbyterians who tried to give her everything religion allowed. Unfortunately, Val’s boisterous behaviour and especially her blatant homosexuality drove a wedge between her and her parents, after which her father refused to tell her anything about her adoption until she came to her senses. Val leaves for Glasgow to study law and frustrated by and anxious about the fact that the only clues about her adoption are a card signed by two police officers and a scar on the sole of her foot, Val loses herself in her studies, karate and one-night-stands. Her only rock is Alex, who is also adopted and – despite her nervous behaviour – has a calming effect on Val’s unruliness. Alex is also the only one who knows Val’s softer side and her secret motto: a person on his own is not a person. Alex persuades Val to move out of Glasgow and she is proved right when she discovers Val is a descendant of Glasgow’s two ruling criminal families: the MacDonalds and MacLeods. As a six-month-old baby Val survived one of the bloodiest nights Glasgow has ever known, and she was given a secret identity after that. Despite her criminal background, it turns out Val’s biological parents were trying to escape the violence. Her mother was killed, but her father – after serving a prison sentence – disappeared and rebuilt a life on Skye, the very place Val calls her “stamping ground”. Thanks to Alex, Val is introduced to her family. No longer an only child, she takes a strong liking to the other odd-one-out: Finn.
Val settles down with Yeva, who did Alex’ tattoo and painted the family tree of Alex’ girlfriend, Julie.
