The striking figure of Veronica Linklater — tall, straight-backed, with long tawny hair — seemed destined to become a pioneer in some social movement, as indeed she was. The eldest of three sisters known in 1960s society as the Lyle girls, she had been among the first students at the University of Sussex in 1963, and later used her degree in social sciences to make an impact wherever social justice was needed, most notably in the fields of prison reform and education.
During an early foray into a children’s home in Fife, where she was playing her guitar to entertain them, one of the teenage girls came up to her as she was leaving and said, “Miss Lyle, can I come home with you? Will