The East End and where it all began...

What is the inspiration for writing novels?This is a question most writers are asked and in my case, it’s always the Isleof Dogs, the heart of London's East End.

It began in the 1920’s, when Grandad was given the chance to rent a small, three-bedroom council terrace with a front parlour, kitchen and yard. Having lived in just two rooms above a shop with a shared outside lavatory, this was paradise.

Grandad was a casual in the docks and often out of work. He was also a revolutionary after having been tied to a gun-wheel and flogged in the Great War - by his own side. He challenged the unions and the government and Gran feared his “principles” would forever keep them in poverty. Unfortunately they did.


Though my grandparents never had a penny to their name, the house was always clean and their children loved. The pawnbroker was used every Monday, the tally many avoided on Fridays, and my mum, the eldest child of seven, won a scholarship to British Street School, a great accolade in those days.

Grandad "waited on the stones" amongst all the other casuals, seeking work that was to render many men sick from the anthrax that infected the carcass holds. He refused to be won over politically and soaked himself and his family in philosophy and revolutionary materials. Needless to say, he was extraordinary in his beliefs and he wrote many of them down at the library, where he spent hours reading, learning and encouraging people to think for themselves.

Grandad is, I believe, with me, as I write. The sense of community in the East End pervaded everyday life. Islanders were close then, as they are now. My Gran who had been in service was a true matriarch, employing what she had learned as a Lady’s maid, in her own home. She gave birth to stunningly beautiful daughters and a strong, handsome son who left for sea and the Spanish conflict. This is why my books are peppered with home-grown politics – as seen from an East Enders viewpoint. Very basic, but absolutely spot-on when it comes to shrewd survival.

The family was evacuated in World War2 and this gave me the idea for EAST END ANGEL. One young woman, an evacuee, lost her husband just after he volunteered. Everyone said how it could have been so different had he kept his reserved job. Years later I was to wonder what would have happened if he had returned to his beautiful wife and child? And I’m so happy that EAST END ANGEL seems to have struck a chord with readers too!