This was an interesting little Virago book that lifts the lid on 1960s factory girls in London through a series of short stories. Expect trauma delivered staccato style and sleek characters who feel more than they say.
From glamorous pub nights to grim houses and cycles of debt, we get the whole chaotic feel of a city and a lifestyle pushed to the edge. Racism, abortions, prejudice, sexual assault, violence – it all gets mixed up in these warm and earthy characters and their stories.
A series of snapshots, with an emphasis on dialogue and context rather than interiority, the central frame is a “posh girl” who “slums” it by running away into factory life. In this way she’s a kind of loose anthropologist in this narrative, a character who allows others to “explain back” their lives to her.
Favourite exuberant quote: I don’t wear knickers on Friday, makes it easier! (This in the context of peeing in the street).
This text was made into an iconic Ken Loach series, as well as a “kitchen sink drama” film.
The book came out in 1963 and is set in the slums of Battersea and Clapham Junction. It was innovative for its time thanks to its colloquial language and controversial themes like backstreet abortions.
I enjoyed the laconic and direct delivery. These stories doesn’t hang about.
Read if you’re ready to travel to the grit and the grime of the 1960s.
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