Penny Sweets and Cobbled Streets

Book excerpt: Nanny Pat has always been the heart of her family, and her children and grandchildren regularly pitch up at her house for a cup of tea, a slice of her famous sausage plait and some wise advice. Now, with her trademark warmth and humour, she evokes the colourful East End world of her childhood. Pat was born in 1935 and, apart from a brief period when she was evacuated during the Second World War, she lived in Bow, part of a poor but close-knit community. Her mother died when Pat was only eleven, leaving her heartbroken. As young as she was, she was soon running the household, washing, cleaning and cooking for her father and brother - as well as working in a cork factory upon leaving school. It was a lonely life at times, as her strict father refused to let her go courting. But then she met a handsome young man called Charlie . . . and, against all opposition, she was determined to marry him. Full of great characters, from her deaf Nan to Auntie Alice, who would dress in all her furs to pop out to buy a pork chop, and packed with wonderful anecdotes, this delightful memoir vividly captures a lost way of life.