Following on from the first novel, Helen is still stuck in poverty and when a job opportunity comes up for Helen, she must fight for her independence with her mother. Helen is determined to go out to work and to improve her lifestyle, only to find her life made harder by her family circumstances and illness brought on by living in poverty.Set in the 1930’s Depression, Helen Forrester writes her own true life account of growing up poverty-stricken in Liverpool. Following on from the first novel Twopence to Cross the Mersey, this is a very moving and heart told story. You really do feel for Helen and all she has got to go through, it is a quite remarkable story, well worth the read.
This book was given to me by friend. I had never heard of the author, but I'm glad I found her, and I'm sorry she has passed away, because now I can't tell her how much I liked her book. Although it wasn't the page turner that the 'Glass Castle' was for me, I kept picking it up over a period of 6 months. I really like Helen's style of writing. Not overly poetic, but a beautiful clear and honest style. I love memoirs like these; the incredible poverty and parents who are out of touch with reality, and the incredible determination of the heroine to get out of her misery with her desire to work and educate herself.