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'Every page is a delight. Every chapter made vivid by a writer who has poured heart and soul into her book'. Val Hennessy, Daily Mail The East End of London - cockneys, criminals, street markets, pub singalongs, dog racing, jellied eels ... it is a place at once appealing and unruly, comforting and incomprehensible. Gilda O'Neill, an East Ender herself shows there is more to this fascinating area than a collection of cliched images. Using oral history and more traditional sources she builds up a powerful image of this community - bringing to us, with wit and honesty, the real story of London's East End
A rich, dramatic saga of murder and obsession set against the glittering backdrop of 19th-Century London. Perfect for fans of Dilly Court, Rosie Goodwin and Donna Douglas. What readers are saying about Lights of London 'What a lovely story...it totally had me gripped from beginning to end' - 5 STARS 'Brilliant - could not put it down' - 5 STARS 'Wow...a must read' - 5 STARS ************************************************************************************ AS A NEW CENTURY DAWNS, WILL HER LOT BE HARDSHIP OR HAPPINESS? The lights of London seem bright to Kitty Miller, but their sparkle soon fades when she finds herself alone and destitute, at the mercy of those that inhabit the fog-bound streets and alleyways of the East End. When the feisty young prostitute, Tibs Tyler, takes her under her wing, the two girls, one dark, one fair, set themselves up as a music hall act. As they desperately try to break free from Tibs's violent pimp, and to avoid the educated and wealthy yet sinister Dr Tressing, they also hope to make a new life for themselves as the new century breaks.
A gripping saga of love and loss on the eve of the Great War. The annual migration from London to the hop fields of Kent is normally a longed-for escape from the dust and grime of the East End. But this year Rose Fairleigh worries their departure will interrupt the slow-blossoming romance between her daughter Jess and postman Jack Barnes. Jack promises to visit and assures Rose he will keep an eye on her three sons, who are staying behind. Before he knows it, though, one of the boys is in trouble and it's up to Jack to bring him home. Meanwhile in Kent, Jess' life grows increasingly confusing as, full of promises and charm, the son of suffragette Lady Worlington turns his attentions to her... A heartwrenching East End family drama, perfect for fans of Sheila Newberry and Downton Abbey.
Step into the everyday lives of East End Londoners during the Second World War 'I wanted to write about a time and a place when living in such a street - or rather a community - would have been part of so-called ordinary working people's everyday experience, but when the circumstances couldn't exactly be described as normal.' What was life like during WWII? Away from the battles? On the street where you live? Gilda O'Neill's Our Street takes a look at the world outside of the war. Told through the daily rituals of those living in London's East End, it shares the concerns, hopes, fears and sense of community that grew during tremendous hardship. The perfect companion to Gilda O'Neill's bestselling My East End, this is an important book and an affectionate record of an often fondly remembered, more communal, way of life that has all but disappeared. 'A rich tapestry . . . a finely detailed examination of our not so distant past. Her book is as much a piece of history as the accounts it contains' Time Out 'Every page is a delight. Every chapter made vivid by a writer who has poured heart and soul into her book' Daily Mail
Gilda O'Neill has gathered together her memories and personal recollections of growing up in the East End of London. It was a timeof unbelievable hardship and devastating change; yet also of great pride, kindness, courage, resilience and humour.
'Funny about death, real about anxiety, witty about the things that worry us the most' Emma Gannon, author of Olive 'So fundamentally kind that you can feel the warmth coming off each page' Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Starling Days Meet Gilda. She cannot stop thinking about death. Desperate for relief from her anxious mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local church and finds herself abruptly hired to replace the deceased receptionist Grace. It's not the most obvious job - she's queer and an atheist for starters - and so in between trying to learn mass, hiding her new maybe-girlfriend and conducting an amateur investigation into Grace's death, Gilda must avoid revealing the truth of her mortifying existence. A blend of warmth, deadpan humour, and pitch-perfect observations about the human condition, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead is a crackling exploration of what it takes to stay afloat in a world where your expiration - and the expiration of those you love - is the only certainty.
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In this enthralling Victorian drama, a young woman tries to escape poverty in London’s East End as Jack the Ripper stalks the streets. Ettie Wilkins must get out of Whitechapel. As her mother sinks deeper into alcoholism, the volatile lodger sharing their slum turns his attentions to Ettie. So when debonair Professor Jacob Protsky picks Ettie out of the crowd, she is determined to seize her chance. Despite a chorus of warnings, Ettie goes to live with Protsky in Bow to assist him with his magic tricks. But when Ettie befriends the mysterious Celia Tressing, she soon finds herself increasingly worried by events in Whitechapel. A series of gruesome murders and whispers of Jack the Ripper have shaken even that resilient community . . . Perfect for fans of Rosie Goodwin and Kitty Neale.
In the 1940s, nearly a quarter of a million East Londoners decamped annually for the hopfields of Kent. Most of the pickers were women, who would take their children and other dependent relatives to stay in the hoppers' huts on the farms. This book records the memories of some of them, in their own lively words. Funny, nostalgic and ironic by turns, they tell of hopping as 'a break from him', an escape from the chesty London smog, respite from the bombs of war, as well as a source of income - and the nearest thing to a holiday that adults or children were likely to get. It was a time of hard graft, of laughter and companionship and long evenings around the faggot fire. In the memories of those who were there, it was a time when the sun always shone ... Gilda O'Neill was herself a hop picker as a girl. In this vivid book she not only pays tribute to the creative genius of the working class of London's East End, but examines the role of memory and oral history in our understanding of the past.
Outwardly Nella's life was probably seen as ordinary; but behind this mask were a lively mind and a persistent pen - a pen that never gave up over almost three decades, reporting, describing, pondering, and disclosing. Nella, 55 when the war ends, writes of what ordinary people felt during those years of privation, hope and the re-building of Britain, providing a moving and inspiring account of the years that shaped the society we live in today. Her diary offers a detailed, moving and humorous narrative of the changing experiences of ordinary people at this time, and thoughts on the aftermath of war and whether 'peace' really meant peace, for everyone.