A Double Thread: A Childhood in Mile End - And Beyond (Reminiscence)

by JohnGross (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $10.14

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $3.47

  These are the memoirs of a boy, discovering his own path, through books, films and school. The son of a Jewish doctor who practised in Mile End during World War II, John Gross grew up in a household steeped in the language and traditions of a European past. Yet, outside his home he grew up in a very English world of schools and books and corner shops. Looking back on his childhood with humour and wisdom, he reflects on this double inheritance. The richness of Yiddish words and religion set against the daily life of the East End, where gangsters were heroes. Yet, in the background, lies the shadow of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.

• New

  Paperback
  2002

  $13.09

  John Gross was the son of a Jewish doctor who practised in Mile End at the time of WW2. His parents were the children of immigrants, steeped in the language and traditions of a European past, yet outside the home he grew up in a very English world of schools and books. Looking back on his childhood he reflects on this double inheritance. The richness of Yiddish words, the rituals of religion set against the daily life of the East End, where gangsters were heroes and patients turned up on the doorstep at all hours. Yet in the background lies the shadow of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. A Double Thread is a marvellously vivid picture of a lost London and a vanished culture but it is also the story of an imaginative boy discovering his own path, through books andfilms and school - away from the East End into the new freedoms of a literary life.