Pearl Gregson believes it takes one person to enter your life, or one event to occur, and without warning the whole course of one's life changes. And that's how it happened when her husband, Ralph, passed away in the back room of their corner shop. Spitting Feathers is a memoir set in Lancashire, England when Pearl, a widow, meets Alan White on a blind date. Believing she had found true happiness, she agrees to move in with him when the shop is sold. Coping with Alan's constant ex-wife and family problems became a thorn in her side during their early years. Pearl questions if Alan is telling the truth until it becomes evident that her husband has secrets he prefers to keep to himself. Pearl knows he is hiding something in the garage. What is it? Unable to get a truthful answer from him, Pearl begins a daily search ritual but she never expected to stumble upon what it was that Alan had been hiding. Powerless to get to the bottom of it, Pearl questions if their years together had been one continual lie? Finally, she packs up her things and leaves. In the rented terraced house in a rundown area of Nelson, feeling the sickness of Alan's manipulative behaviour caused by his Mental Abuse, Pearl writes an account of their years together as she tries to unravel Alan's deceit.