3 Review(s)

The Girl from Guildford Street describes a working class childhood, growing up in Lozells, Birmingham, 1957-1968. The author and her sister and cousins were the last generation to grow up in the back to backs: Birmingham council houses, two up, one down; no bathroom, inside toilet, central heating or hot running water; centred around a back yard with outside toilets, sheds and a brew'us or wash house. The author looks at family life in the back to backs, and how whole families lived on one street. The author's parents both worked in local factories at a time when manufacturing was booming in Birmingham. This is not a misery memoir - it is the story of a happy childhood in one of Birmingham's poorest areas. It also looks at the Sixties - the fashions, the politics, the music, the hairstyles, the World Cup - as a golden age.