Coin Street Chronicles: London's Vanished Old South Bank Area
Written by Gwen Southgate
Narrated by Gwen Southgate
5/5
()
About this audiobook
Coin Street Chronicles is a memoir that paints a picture of Britain in the 1930s and 1940s, as seen though the eyes of one for whom it was the backdrop of her childhood. The story is set in and around Coin Street, on the south bank of the River Thames.
The area is now a cultural showcase known as The South Bank, but was then a gritty, Cockney-like corner of London. Stories of its colorful characters are woven throughout the narrative as they cope first with the poverty of the Depression years and then with World War II and its aftermath in the 1940s. Evacuation during the war years entails many abrupt transitions and good-byes - some sad, some glad - and much settling in to new settings that run the gamut from a remote Dorset farm to a Welsh mining town.
Even after the war, the author remains a quasi-evacuee for two more years, fleeing from a difficult, violence-prone stepfather in order to continue in school.
The memoir ends on the day that she heads off to university, exulting in her escape from the limiting nature of working class culture; but appalled by the wide gulf that threatens to open up between her and her feisty mother whose pluck and determination has been largely responsible for that escape.
An Author's Republic audio production.
Related to Coin Street Chronicles
Related audiobooks
The Lost Girls: Love and Literature in Wartime London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hotel on Place Vendome: Life, Death, and Betrayal at the Hotel Ritz in Paris Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child of the East End Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blue Skies, No Fences: A Memoir of Childhood and Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Longfellah's Son: An Almost True Irish Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Minding the Manor: The Memoir of a 1930s English Kitchen Maid Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Learnt About Hitler at the Mickey Mouse Club: A Childhood on the Eve of War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOver a Hot Stove: A Kitchen Maid's Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Maude Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Every Little Scrap and Wonder: A Small-Town Childhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Amazing Interlude Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It: A Memoir of My Irish Boyhood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sister Kate: Nursing through the Troubles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Improbable Connections: A Mayflower Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMargot at War: Love and Betrayal in Downing Street, 1912-1916 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Englishwoman in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Egg and I: Life on a wilderness chicken ranch told with wit and high humour Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Looking for Betty Macdonald: The Bog, the Plague, Mrs Piggle Wiggle and I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Constance Street: The true story of one family and one street in London’s East End Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsResistance: A Frenchwoman's Journal of the War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jew Store: A Family Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seamstress Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Time for Tears Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFive Days Gone: The Mystery of My Mother's Disappearance as a Child Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rose: My Life in Service to Lady Astor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finn Again: A Young Man’s Coming of Age Tale of Love and a Battle Against Addiction in a Time of War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Historical Biographies For You
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Bondage and My Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Moveable Feast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alexander the Great Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leonardo da Vinci Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Napoleon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Up From Slavery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil and Harper Lee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Van Gogh: The Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eliza Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A. Lincoln: A Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Coin Street Chronicles
2 ratings0 reviews