Born in Milngavie in 1926 Owens spent most of her life on the west coast of Scotland. Owens wrote four successful novels after being discovered aged 58 in a writers group led by Liz Lochhead. Labelled the “most unfairly neglected of all living Scottish authors” after a publisher told her she “only wrote about poor people.” Owens often drew from her own background in the Vale, in a series of novels noted for their humour and power of observation. Her 1998 novel “For the Love of Willie” was shortlisted for the Stakis Prize.

She has been married twice and raised seven children, also working as a cleaner, typist and factory worker.

Writer Alasdair Gray has described the early part of Owens’ writing career: “Her first novel, Gentlemen of the West, was returned by a publisher who said that he might consider printing it if a famous Scottish comedian said something about it which could be used as an advertisement.

She posted the typescript to the comedian who put it on that pile of unsolicited correspondence which no famous person has time to answer. Industry in the Vale of Leven started closing even faster than in the rest of Britain. Westclox limited went into liquidation and Agnes hunted for part-time cleaning jobs.

She worked for a while in the house of the comedian who had received her typescript a few years before, and got it back.”