TWOPENCE TO CROSS MERSEY - Hardcover

Forrester, Helen

4.24

2,034 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 037030196X ISBN 13: 9780370301969

Publisher: Random House UK, 1987

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This major best-selling memoir of a poverty-stricken childhood in Liverpool is one of the most harrowing but uplifting books you will ever hear. When Helen Forrester's father went bankrupt in 1930, she and her six siblings were forced into utmost poverty and slum surroundings in Depression-ridden Liverpool. The running of the household and the care of the younger children all fell on 12-year-old Helen.

With very little food or help from her feckless parents, Helen led a life of unrelenting drudgery and hardship. Writing about her experiences later in life, Helen Forrester shed light on an almost forgotten part of life in Britain. Written with good humour and a lack of self-pity, Forrester's memoir of these grim days is as heart-warming as it is shocking.

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About the Author:

Helen Forrester was born in Hoylake, Cheshire, the eldest of seven children. For many years, until she married, her home was Liverpool, a city that features prominently in her work. For over thirty years now she has made her home in Alberta, Canada. In 1988 she was awarded an honourary D.Litt. by the University of Liverpool in recognition of her achievements as an author.

Review:

`It was the biography that I would have written if my parents had not been given benefits, if they'd had to rely on parish hand outs ... [I] want to press this book into your hands and go, "You must read this".' Caitlin Moran`Remarkable that from so bleak and unloving a background came a writer of such affectionate understanding and unsettling honesty' Sunday Telegraph`What makes this writer's self-told tale so memorable?... An absolute recall, a genius for the unforgettable detail, the rare chance of subject'The Good Book Guide'Should be long and widely read as an extraordinary human story and social document' Observer

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