Having been gripped by the first three autobiographical books by Helen Forrester, I was looking forward to 'Lime Street at two', the fourth and last. I thought perhaps it would fill in the gaps during her young adult life that were rapidly skimmed over at the end of the third book (By the waters of Liverpool).
Sadly, I was disappointed. Yes, it filled in some of the gaps and told us more of her romances in the war years, but I didn't find this book nearly so interesting or so well-written as the previous ones. Instead it seemed to slot anecdotes in randomly between general facts and figures relating to the war.
No doubt this book is useful as a piece of social history from a first-person viewpoint. But whereas the earlier books read like stories, and were very moving as a result, this one left me cold. I almost wished I hadn't bothered, since the first three books seem complete in themselves. There is a conclusion at the end of the third that takes us right up to the time when Helen Forrester started writing.
I didn't even feel that this book ended satisfactorily. It suddenly came to a stop, with the end of the war, but did not leave much hope for the future. Nor did it leave any clue what the author might have done later in her life. Since I had already read the third book, I knew what the future held. But for anyone picking this volume up without having read the others, it would be rather frustrating. There's a lot of reference to people from the other books but without much to capture interest, even for someone like me who had felt totally involved with their lives in the earlier books.
To be fair, it's not badly written and for someone interested in the war years it's probably worth reading. But it was quite a disappointment when read directly after the others in the series.
'By the Waters of Liverpool' is the third book in Helen Forrester's autobiographical account of her family's life in Liverpool during the Depression of the 1930s. As this book opens, Helen is 18. She is not quite so dirty and hungry as in the earlier books, but still struggles to keep the family together.
World War II threatens. Ironically this makes life a bit easier for Helen since the younger children are evacuated, giving her a little more free time. She continues to work steadily for little money and to give most of her pay to her parents. She becomes increasingly more stressed as she sees other people her age having fun despite poverty and the war.
In this book she eventually begins to bloom as a young woman. She is an amazing example of courage and strength in face of adversity, as she does what she can to make the most of every penny. There's no hint of self-pity in the writing, just an honest and often moving account of what was probably a typical family for the era.
There's an epilogue to this book, flashing forward ten years to give us a 'happy ending'. So I suspect it was supposed to be the last of a trilogy. I thought it well worth reading, and I'm now very interested to find what the final book in the series is about.
The first book in the series is 'Twopence to Cross the Mersey', and the second is 'Liverpool Miss'.
'Liverpool Miss' is the second in Helen Forrester's autobiographical series of four books. I didn't find this so instantly gripping and shocking as the first, but it's nonetheless very well-written and makes an excellent sequel.
Helen goes through her teenage years in this book. She starts work for a pittance, struggles to attend evening classes, goes through puberty, and continues to look after her six younger siblings. She also has to try and deal with her rather irresponsible and unpredictable parents.
It's an amazing story, all in all. It provides some very interesting social history and beautifully drawn people. The book flows so well that it's hard to remember, at times, that it's not fiction at all.
This book could be read alone, but is much better, in my opinion, read as sequel to 'Twopence to Cross the Mersey'.
'Twopence to cross the Mersey' is the first in a series of four books forming Helen Forrester's autobiography. I had not realised until starting this book that it was in fact autobiographical rather than fiction; the cover looks like a typical Liverpool saga, and I had had the book for quite some time before deciding to try it.
I was almost immediately hooked!
The style is fast-moving and evocative without being at all self-pitying. Helen is 12 when the book opens, oldest of a family of seven children, and disaster has struck. Her fairly prosperous middle-class family has become bankrupt and destitute. This is partly due to the economic depression of the 1930s, and partly due to her parents' bohemian and extravagant lifestyle.
They leave their house for their creditors. Then they spend their last pennies on travelling to Liverpool, where her father hopes to find work.
Of course there is no work to be found, and so begins a moving story of abject destitution, near starvation, and grim determination on behalf of Helen and some of her siblings. There were times when I had to remind myself it was indeed true anecdotes about a real family, rather than a rather depressing invention.
And yet there was always something positive and hopeful running through every disaster that struck, some conviction that things had to get better. This was not only because Helen, despite being kept away from school to look after her baby brother, clearly became a published author as an adult!
I expected to find it a bit of a struggle to keep going. Instead I was gripped, drawn in to this family. I became more aware than I had ever been of what it meant to be bankrupt and destitute in hard times, and extremely thankful for my own lifestyle in the 21st century.
Highly recommended.
