- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate; first edition, edition (6 May 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1841151424
- ISBN-13: 978-1841151427
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 15.6 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 578,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Silvertown is the story of the life of author Melanie McGrath's grandmother, Jenny Page. As McGrath acknowledges, "It was the kind of life that could have belonged to a thousand women living in the mid years of the twentieth century in the East End of London. Except that it didn't. It belonged to Jenny". McGrath's achievement in the book is to make Jenny's very commonplace, circumscribed life not only believable and moving but also to turn it into a mirror in which the reader can see the changes that the century visited upon the East End. When Jenny was a young girl, the London docks were the biggest port in the world, teeming with life and industry. By the time she was an old woman, all the docks were closed and the old East End was a part of history. Not that Silvertown encourages nostalgia. The descriptions of Jenny's impoverished childhood, of the pulling of all her teeth on her 17th birthday, of the sweatshop where she worked, are enough to make readers throw away any rose-tinted glasses they might be tempted to use. Very occasionally the dialogue in the book lapses into the "Cor, blimey, strike a light, guv'nor" kind of Cockney heard in so many bad British films of the black-and-white era. Largely, both dialogue and narrative combine to provide a remarkably convincing and lively portrait of an ordinary life rescued from oblivion and of a world that's gone.--Nick Rennison
Review
'McGrath tells her story in a novelist's idiom, and the result is extraordinarily powerful and curiously resonant. Like much of the East End, Silvertown today is in the process of an astonishing transformation. The curse on the area has been lifted. But McGrath has beautifully recorded the old Silvertown just before it disappears for ever.' Sinclair McKay, Daily Telegraph
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The first thing that struck me about this book was the use of language which raises it head and shoulders above others of a similar genre.For example " Jenny was salty and wilful,as thin and prickly as the reeds that once grew where she was born. Her heart was full of tiny thorns, which chafed but were never big enough to make her bleed. "
The second thing to strike me that I was being led through a door into a world and a London about which I knew absolutely nothing and had never dreamt that such a place existed. Perhaps much of this would be familiar to Londoners but as a Scot this book was a revelation, a history lesson intertwined with the story of an ordinary, yet somehow extraordinary life.
If I have any criticism of the book it would simply be that it was far too short and passed too quickly from my life. I wanted to know so much more, to ask so many more questions than were answered. And yet that is the mastery of this book, it leaves you wishing there was just one more sweetie in the bag. That Jenny Page had one more sugary treat to offer.
It is without doubt one the best books I have read this year.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a really impressive book. It is the story of a poor, passive young woman, born and living out her life in the East End, unhappily married, and pretty much at the mercy of big national and world events. It is the very ordinariness of the story that makes it so impressive; Jenny Page could be anybody's grandma, and her life story is absorbing. Melanie McGrath wears her research/general learning lightly. I found it impossible to put down, and wanted it to go beyond Jenny's story, to tell us more about Rosie, and, indeed, McGrath herself. Very highly recommended.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Despite not being able to put this book down, it left me feeling a little unsure about its veracity. The skilfully drawn characters and sense of place held me in thrall but as the book drew on I began to feel that much of what I was reading had to be based on surmise and woven around wider research than just a family history. My gran was an East End Girl too and certainly didn't have such a recall of detail. There was also a sense of sadistic vouyeurism: gaining pleasure from reading about such a miserable life, that I felt uncomfortable about.Enjoy it as a work of 'faction' perhaps, and admire the skill of the author, but beware of taking it as gospel.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Silvertown
I was very pleased with the book just as discribed,and a very good price. Posted in fast time & well packed.
Published 7 months ago by Kathy30
Silvertown......a good read
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was recommended to me by a family member who vividly recalled reading it some years previously. Read more
Published 7 months ago by dollysmum
Good read
I am really interested in social history and this book gives a very good account of the decline of the East End of London. Read more
Published 7 months ago by theweekender
Brilliant read!
This book is a fantastic true recollection of mememories of the East end, If you or your family lived around Silvertown or nearby area's you will recall places and events that your... Read more
Published 7 months ago by misslacey
Evocative memories of a remarkable (or maybe unremarkable) life
I enjoyed this book a lot. The descriptions of the harsh lives led by the author's grandmother and other relatives of that era are somewhat familiar from similar books but lose... Read more
Published 20 months ago by J. French
silvertown
Very good read, how the east end has changed! It is good to learn about our ancestors and how they lived and survived.
Published 21 months ago by K. Ftrewin
Silvertown
I found this book extremely interesting, as I had visited the East End and Olympic site recently, especially towards the end. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Jill Brennan
Silvertown Forever
This book is brilliant. Having lived in the local area all my life and seen the changes of the Royal Docks in recent years, this book brought a tear to my eye as the memories of... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Paula Patton
Gran liked it
I bought this for my gran aged 86. She wrote to say it brought back many memories for her, as she lived close by. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Lottie
Silvertown - An East End Family Memoir
This is an excellent book! After reading the first page I found I couldnt put the book down. Melanie McGrath made me feel as if I was actually living in her great grandparents,... Read more
Published on 14 Mar 2010 by Pauline Flynn
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
