Lizzie Higgins has been played on NTS in shows including The Trilogy Tapes, featured first on 16 October 2023. Songs played include The Cruel Mother.

Lizzie Higgins (1929-1993) was an Aberdeenshire ballad singer.

Born Elizabeth Ann Higgins in Guest Row, Aberdeen, she was the daughter of settled Travellers the piper Donty Higgins and the singer Jeannie Robertson. In 1941, after her school was twice bombed, Lizzie moved with her mother to the rural town of Banchory, where the local children bullied her for her heritage. She was so unhappy in this environment that she left school at fifteen despite the pleasure she gained from studying. She…