Fascinating story of the East End, primarily from 1900-1960ish as told by the voices of many people who lived there, the vast majority the poorer working class. Some other people have said there's too much romanticism and I think there definitely is quite a bit but the author tries to be balanced and is at least talking about the loss of actual things (sense of community and just human contact, the general feeling of disconnection as you grow older, feeling of neglect by most of the political class etc) and doesn't pin it on ridiculous sources (she avoids even the more covert racism and generally I quite liked what political comment she made, which was a change).

The real treat here is just the very evocative descriptions from actual people of how they lived - the games they played, the houses they lived in, the people they talked to, how they got by, what the war was like. You can't point to any one thing and say "this is special" but taken together it creates an amazing portrait of a world that's now mostly gone. If you're interested in that sort of history of average people - not in the class sense, but just how average people lived - then you'll definitely enjoy this. ( )

My upbringing was London - South-East at first, and then West, and then work started in the City - to where my ancestors were from. not quite the East End of the book. However, the authos is only 5/6 years younger than me, so there are so many parts which are so familiar about my early life

The East End of London is a nearly mythological neighborhood. From Jack the Ripper to jellied eels, from the 'mockney' of Hollywood to the true Cockneys, dock workers and mothers and criminals (think the Kray brothers), from the street markets to the neighborhood pubs, nearly everyone has an image of what the East End is like.

O'Neill, who was raised there, has done an admirable job of bringing it all together in an affectionate and nostalgic portrayal. It may err slightly on the side of romanticism, but on the other hand works heard to do away with many of the cliches.

The book is a combination of traditional memoir, historical/anthropological writing and oral history. Her research and breadth is impressive, although the combination of mediums isn't entirely successful. While her own writing is clear, concise, focused and engaging, the same can't be said for the oral histories and no matter how intriguing some of the details were, some of it is repetitious. It feels at times as though it's part of a student thesis, which detracts from it's considerable charm. Still, for anyone interested in the area, the history or the people, it's a good read, a fascinating glimpse of a lost way of life and an inspiring portrait of resilience and community.

Some of the most powerful passages were those in which the author explored the truly horrific conditions that resulted from not having any social net-- no welfare, no national health medicine. The suffering, disease and deaths that resulted should provide a brutal wake-up to anyone who supports a free-market capitalist solution to social problems. Want to see what North American society would look like (and in some cases already does) without social programs? Think Dickens. Think Victorian-era East End London. For that reason alone the book is more than worthwhile. ( )

For the most part I liked this book and it was really good to listen to it. I don't think I would have stuck with it, if I had to read it. It's pretty long and a lot of it is repetitious. It was like she was making a point and then found as many people as she could to echo that point. The reader had the author have a straight London accent for her first person account (she sounded like Julie Andrews,) but it made for a good contrast with the other people with a cockney or foreign accent. All in all, I thought it was good to see another side of London's history (contrasting to "The Apothecary's daughter" which was set in West London and a country village.) ( )