My East End: Memories of Life in Cockney London
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Amazon.co.uk Review
The heart of the East End has always been Tower Hamlets; Gilda O'Neill is enough of a partisan to regard even Hackney as a bit out of bounds. My East End starts with the earliest times--the East of London has always been where dirty industry congregated, downstream from the Court and Parliament, and it has always been where incomers started, from Flemings in the Middle Ages to Bengalis today.
The greater part of this excellent book, though, is not a competent academic run through of the sources, but an invaluable collection of oral history, in which pensioners talk about the classic East End of late Victorian times and the inter-war period, a time when grinding poverty could just about be survived with luck, when people were forced to live in each other's pockets and children played around the open door of their homes until all hours: "There was always a jigsaw on the go and everyone that called had a go at putting some pieces in. Nanny usually came round on Friday nights and always brought a bag of sweets--winter warmers--and, as she was going home, she would call out 'Goodnight, kidlets'. I said that when I grew up I would go out singing in the streets and buy her a pair of blue bloomers."
O'Neill is fascinating about both the positive and negative sides of a way of life that went forever when families were moved out to housing estates on the fringes of London and about the parts of it that have survived into a new multi-cultural East End; My East End is a good book because it has an unsnobbish respect for the voices it draws on. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"'Every page is a delight. Every chapter made vivid by a writer who has poured heart and soul into her book' - Daily Mail; '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"
--This text refers to the
Audio Cassette
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read My East End in one day (something I have rarely done). I was hypnotised and delighted to read all the quotes. . . I could "see" the people and hear my parents and my grand-parents in the phrasing - and yet they were all brought up in Paddington (a good few miles from the East End). A true account of a lifestyle that was snatched from under our feet. If only we could interact the way they all did then, when there was real London Pride.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having been born, when the Old East End was on the verge of extinction, when people in suits decided that it was better to destroy communities and build the Nirvanah for the working Class out in Essex, this book brought back so many memoires for me. If anyone wants to know what life really was like, they should buy this book and then they'll understand the differences between then and now, and also the complete fiction that is displayed on their screens on a weekly basis. This book should be distributed to every school.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
What a brilliant read, it took me back to my childhood and the stories of my father and his parents. Just a shame the author thinks the East End is the only place such behaviours took place - I'm from south London and we were brought up just the same! Hence recommended as a great read for Londoners and those who wish to learn about Londoners - whatever side of the river they come from.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Really good read.
I got this for a friend of mine who used to live in the east end of london. She read it and really liked it,she then gave it to her brother, he enjoyed it as well. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Mr. Roy A. Proctor
My East End
I had heard the author reading her book on BBC 7 and bought it for a Christmas present for my sister-in-law who was born and brought up in the East End around the same time. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Margaret (MK)
Evolution of the East End.
Great book, I was born in '71, but some of the things from the 30's still happened in my life, growing up in Hackney. Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2009 by Dominic Tomlin
My father's birthplace
My father was born in the East End in 1894.Having served his country in WW1 he loved nothing better than to tell my sister and I, when we were very young, all about the East End... Read more
Published on 15 Feb 2009 by Mrs. B. M. Izzard
Excellent book, interesting picture, unfortunately no maps
I really enjoyed this book, it bought the East End alive, and I liked the really interesing historical facts and figures that the author included. Read more
Published on 16 Nov 2001
A great down to earth easy to read book
This book is excellent! I have long since been a fan of these types of books and i have read and admired Ms O'Neil before in Pull No More Bines and other novles, but in this she... Read more
Published on 8 Oct 2000
A real insight into why the east End is so unique.
A brilliant read. As I was born in Bethnal Green,I found this book fascinating. It gives graphic details of the daily struggle the ordinary folk of East London had to endure. Read more
Published on 13 Jan 2000
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