'Extravagant and rollicking, it has the complete irresponsibility which is only possible from a serious writer'. So wrote the New Alliance in 1941. Today the story of a boy and his octogenarian aunt on the run from the police over the heather and highland hills holds a thrill still relished by children and adults alike.

Hector is an 11-year-old boy living near Edinburgh with his great auntie Robbo who is in her eighties. A woman calling herself his step-mother arrives from England and Hector and Auntie Robbo realise that they have to run away. The chase leads all over the north of Scotland, narrowly escaping police and the authorities, adopting three homeless children on the way.
Originally refused publication in London because it was deemed critical of the English, Auntie Robbo was first published in the U.S. in 1940. After success in print it was taken on by Constable in 1959 and later was published in India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and Germany.