[4] Gap Year, Keeping Orchids, Lucozade, My Grandmother's Houses, Old Tongue, and Whilst Leila Sleeps are all National 5 Scottish texts.

[11] The daughter brings her mother gifts such as Lucozade, which was commonly given to sick people.

[17] The poem includes Scottish words and phrases such as “eedyit”, “dreich” and “shut yer geggie”.

[18] The poem describes a mother and daughter who are fleeing from “men in plain suits”.

[20] Fiona Sampson, reviewing the book for The Guardian, called it "satisfyingly compendious" and said that one of Jackie Kay's greatest strengths is the "way she locates individual experience in the collective".