A Musselburgh singer who brought joy to scores of people with her weekly repertoire during the Covid-19 lockdown last year is celebrating the publication of her first book.

Armed with a portable PA system, Lorraine McBrearty, 49, sang outside her Bridge Street flat every Thursday after Clap for Carers, delighting neighbours, passers-by, and those who tuned into her online videos on social media.

A dentist by profession, she also wrote a tense psychological thriller, The Bucket List, as a “lockdown pastime” under her pen name Emelle Adams.

It tells the story of a woman called Angela who is terminally ill and decides to use her time travelling around Scotland killing those who have wronged her.

Mum-of-one Lorraine, who works at the town’s Duncan Smith Dental Practice, said: “It is dark at times but has humorous touches, too.”

She explained that her fictional book is based in an unnamed town in East Lothian, adding: “There are similarities to Musselburgh, and Prestonpans and North Berwick both get a mention.”

She said: “Angela is running out of time. Already 48 and terminally ill with brain cancer she starts a bucket list, ‘50 things to do before 50.’ But what she really wants to do before she kicks the bucket isn’t ‘walking with alpacas’ or being an extra in a film or even finishing her memoirs. It is seeking revenge on all those who wronged her over the years, all those who definitely deserve to die before she does, all those who would otherwise get to see how the story ends when Angela certainly won’t… or will she?”

The Bucket List has been described as “a tense psychological thriller” about a woman’s obsession with dishing out revenge to those who have hurt her throughout her life.

Lorraine is planning another book which will centre in the area around Carberry Tower and surrounding villages.

Lorraine said: “Again, there might be similarities to Whitecraig, which I know well. My family are from there and I lived there a few years.”

She added: “It’s a sequel of sorts, in the way that the characters in the new one overlap and live in the same fictional universe as those within the first book. I’ve written some of it already but it likely won’t be out until next year.”

Copies of The Bucket List are available on Amazon at amazon.co.uk/dp/B099XDKL7Z