An East End mother and daughter travel from London to work the hop fields of Kent in this 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 heart-wrenching East End family drama, perfect for fans of Sheila Newberry and Downton Abbey.
Cockney Girl is a second-generation Jewish-British child's eyewitness account of tumultuous East London and her eccentric family in England 1934-1950. The writer was then aged 5-20. This zeitgeist, before, during and after World War Two, is based on memor
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.
Born Maurice Micklewhite, son of a Billingsgate fish porter and a charlady; Michael Caine's life has been an extraordinary rollercoaster: from washing dishes and fighting on National Service, to winning two Oscars and being knighted by the Queen.With more than eighty films to his name, he has starred in some of the classics of modern cinema: as an action anti-hero in Get Carter, a Cockney Lothario in Alfie, a disillusioned alcoholic academic in Educating Rita. He is an enduring model of British cool.This authorised biography charts the amazing highs and lows in his turbulent ride to fame, fortune and respect.
Working Girls offers a cultural and literary history of telegraphists, typists, shop-girls, and barmaids. It argues that these occupations helped to shape a distinctively new identity for emancipated young women, and explores how authors used this to navigate a precarious literary landscape.
At the age of five, Shirley Temple became the world’s most famous and acclaimed child—the most talented, beautiful child performer ever to capture the public’s imagination. By the time she was ten, she had either met or had received words of admiration from almost everyone of distinction. Nine-tenths of the world could recognize her on sight. She single-handedly cheered an entire nation caught in the firm grip of a depression. Her films saved a major studio from bankruptcy. She earned more than the President of the United States and lived in her own junior-sized San Simeon. As lionized, idolized and protected as royalty, Shirley Temple was the one and only American Princess. Shirley Temple is brought into focus in this definitive, intimate portrait of her as a child and as the woman that child became: a woman forced to live her entire life in the shadow of her own past glory. We follow the tumultuous events and disappointments that marked Shirley Temple’s meteoric rise to unprecedented fame as a child star, her fall as an adolescent who had outgrown her appeal, and her surprising ascent into a word figure as ambassador to the United Nations, Chief of Protocol for the United States, and Ambassador to Ghana; her “princess in the tower” upbringing that isolated her from friends and real child’s play and from studio co-workers as well; her obsessive relationship with her mother, Gertrude, who lived her life through her famous daughter; her power over one of Hollywood’s greatest despots—Darryl Zanuck; her fairy-tale marriage to John Agar that became a nightmare filled with flaunted infidelities and alcoholism; her romance with Charles Black and her transformation from film start to society matron, television tycoon, to American diplomat; her courageous battle with cancer; and her ever-present realization that “little Shirley Temple’s” greatness would always exceed that of the grown woman. Shirley Temple’s most notable diplomatic achievement was her appointment by President H.W. Bush as the first and only female ambassador to Czechoslovakia. She was present during the Velvet Revolution, which brought about the end of Communism in the country, and she played a critical role in hastening the end of the Communist regime by openly sympathizing with anti-Communist dissidents and later establishing formal diplomatic relations with the newly elected government led by Václav Havel. She took the unusual step of personally accompanying Havel on his first official visit to Washington, riding along on the same plane. Anne Edwards has had the cooperation of those who have been closest to Shirley Temple in all stages of her unique life. She has written a book that does not spare the truth, and is as glittering an expose of Hollywood and its power brokers as any bestselling novel of that genre. Shirley Temple: American Princess is a moving and inspirational story that gives great insight into the privileged corridors of fame and glory where only the legendary figures of our times have walked.
