A London Family Between the Wars (Oxford Paberbacks)

by Mary Vivian Hughes (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1979

  $5.12

  This humorous account of a family growing up in the rural environs of London in the 1920s and 1930s is a sequel to Molly Hughes's autobiographical trilogy, A London Child of the 1870s , A London Girl of the 1880s and A London Home in the 1890s . The book takes up the story of Molly as a widow, with very little money and three sons to educate. On the strength of her teaching experience, she becomes a schools inspector and examiner - a job which provides a rich source for anecdote. She moves her family to Cuffley, then an unspoilt rural village 15 miles from Kings Cross. Born and bred a Londoner, she is elated to find that, incredibly, the garden of their first house affords a view of St Paul's. The amenities of Cuffley are few, but hold charm for the modern reader. The Times arrives by bicycle; necessities, from sugar to doormats, can be bought from a hawker with a pony-cart; and telephone calls are made from a local farmhouse. The story that unfolds is an undramatic one about ordinary people. There are adventures, but of the homely kind - an evening at the talkies , the move to a new house, the excitement of the first grandchild.