| Remembering a Special Corner of London |
May 7, 2010
Coin Street Chronicles by Gwen Southgate is an her memoir of an under-privileged childhood that was nevertheless bountiful in experiences, characters, and history. Gwen was born in 1929 to a mother of strong ideas and big dislikes, and a father who, having served in World War I, knew what real misery was. Gwen endures poverty, bullies, the death of her father, the onset (and onslaught) of World War II, evacuation to the country, return to the city, and her mother's remarriage to an abusive husband, all with a stoicism and humor that is inspiring.
The memoir is chock full of stories both heart-warming and heart-breaking. Evacuated from London during the war and sent to live with a succession of families and a diversity of situations, Gwen treats all with equanimity, doing her best to get along, even if it means dumping stale breakfast porridge surreptitiously down a toilet.
Such revelations of utter honestly and breadth are offered liberally in this memoir, and always without any melodrama or melancholy. Gwen was a girl of common sense and good humor, and it quite clear that she grew up to be a woman of the same mettle, solid in self-understanding, forgiving and jocose in understanding the world around her, and always loyal to the people and the neighborhood that raised her.
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