Strrikers

There are 19 stories in this collection, all set in the East End of London. Some are historical, some are recent. In the 1920s two Jewish boys, having seen the London Jewish Bakers strike, picket a mean neighbour to get their ball back. In the London blitz a couple find love in an air raid. In the 1950s a boy agonises over what will happen to his hero, Captain Marvel, with molten lava pouring towards him at Saturday morning pictures, in our times a black woman is fearful she will lose her job now she has lost her childminder, and a mother of a criminal family pins all her hopes on her youngest - surely he at least will go straight? These simply told tales of East London life speak of pain and despair, of survival and hope.