Twopence to Cross the Mersey: the story of a Liverpool childhood that will break your heart - Softcover

Forrester, Helen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0008180962 ISBN 13: 9780008180966

Publisher: Harper Collins Paperbacks, 2016

Synopsis

This major best-selling memoir of a poverty-stricken childhood in Liverpool is one of the most harrowing but uplifting books you will ever read. 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 twelve-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.

About this title

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

Book Description:

The classic true story of a Liverpool childhood.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Collins Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0008180962
• ISBN 13: 9780008180966
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240