I'm glad your experiences were positive. The Scottish village sounds lovely to me.

I know what you mean about tone, but I'm not sure it's always possible to tell someone's background from their voice, although sometimes you might be able to hazard a decent guess.

I had an interview with a radio presenter once about a book I'd written. She had a British accent and I'd say possibly came from the Birmingham area, based on the accent.

Anyway, my husband pointed her out when she turned up on the television as the lady who'd interviewed me. She was very black. I mean very dark. I honestly had no clue and just assumed she was a white Brit.

So clearly, I can't always tell from a voice. But perhaps some people can. You might be cleverer than me. 😉

But yes, I agree that there's probably some old fashioned ness and small minded ness, but I do hope that it's rare that that translates into racism.