Description
Book Synopsis''A brilliant memoir of a strong woman'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazon reader review
''A must-read that will break your heart but also make you laugh'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazon reader review
''Oi, Hilda, the sign outside says you''re frying today but I ain''t seeing nothing done in ere!''
The voice cut through my daydream. Already there was a queue of hungry customers on the cobbled street of London''s East End.
In 1950s and 60s Bermondsey, the fish-and-chip shop was at the centre of the community. And at the heart of the chippy itself was ''Hooray'' Hilda Kemp, a spirited matriarch who dispensed fish suppers and an abundance of sympathy to a now-vanished world of East Enders.
For Hilda knew all to well what it was like to feel real, aching hunger. Growing up in the slums of 1920s south-east London, the daughter of a violent alcoholic who drank away his wages rather than
Trade Review
A lovely, nostalgic portrait of a strong woman in a vanished world. * PRIMA magazine *
This memoir of married life in post-war Bermondsey will make the contemporary Londoner's eyes boggle. Before the sleek glass apartments there was a grinding poverty and semi-starvation, but a great sense of community and friendship. Hilda survives through the love of a good man and her job at the fish shop. Gut-wrenching. * The Lady *
