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The Sugar Girls: Tales of Hardship, Love and Happiness in Tate & Lyle’s East End
by
Duncan Barrett (Goodreads Author),
Nuala Calvi
`Delightful, a terrific piece of nonfiction storytelling, and an authoritative and highly readable work of social history which brings vividly to life a fascinating part of East End life before it is lost forever.' --Melanie McGrath, author of Silvertown and Hopping
‘On an autumn day in 1944, Ethel Alleyne walked the short distance from her house to Tate & Lyle’s refine...more
‘On an autumn day in 1944, Ethel Alleyne walked the short distance from her house to Tate & Lyle’s refine...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
March 29th 2012
by Collins
(first published February 16th 2012)
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. If you are looking for social commentary or a class analysis you won't find it in this book. It tells the real stories of four real women working at Tate's and Lyles post second war and briefly exploring the home front war experiences they had prior. You have to draw your own political analysis or of course you can read them as stories at face value.
I gave this the full five stories because they chime with the stories my grandparents told. The worker on the Hesser floor who told the 14 year ol...more
I gave this the full five stories because they chime with the stories my grandparents told. The worker on the Hesser floor who told the 14 year ol...more
3.5 Ever since reading the Midwive's series, I have taken a great liking to these kind of books. A group of women, who at various times had worked for the sugar factory. Book explains how easy it was to get employment, a far cry from current times, a woman could start one job in the morning, decide she didn't like it and get a different job by the afternon. A good series, highlighting the many sociological and personal prejudices of the forties and fifties. One girl is forced to give up her chil...more
I enjoyed reading The Sugar Girls. But as Ethel, Gladys, Lilian and Joan’s generation was just one before my own, I was able to recognise much of what was happening in their lives. I think this made it more of a cosy, easy read and took away any surprise, ‘wow’ factor. The social history element of the narrative was fascinating and a reminder of how much things have changed for women in the workplace and in many other ways over the last 50 years. (Just as a matter of interest, I found The Sugar...more
'The nervous 14-year-old who had stood outside the gates of the factory had gone. Ethel was a sugar girl now.'
This lovely book gives us an insider view into the world of women working at Tate & Lyle's factories in the East End of London during the twentieth century.
In particular, it focuses on the stories of four women, Ethel, Lillian, Gladys and Joan, delivering their memories and thoughts about the time they spent working hard at the factories, how their days were filled, how their lives w...more
This lovely book gives us an insider view into the world of women working at Tate & Lyle's factories in the East End of London during the twentieth century.
In particular, it focuses on the stories of four women, Ethel, Lillian, Gladys and Joan, delivering their memories and thoughts about the time they spent working hard at the factories, how their days were filled, how their lives w...more
The preface gives the reader a brief background of the two refineries. The employment conditions of the times and also the changes in modern Silvertown are also briefly touched on.
The reader is then introduced to Ethel, Lilian and Gladys whose families all have similar social backgrounds … and later on we get to meet Joan whose family have a different perspective of finances.
Their stories are narrated in chapters of their own and the language is such that you can imagine the women themselves sha...more
The reader is then introduced to Ethel, Lilian and Gladys whose families all have similar social backgrounds … and later on we get to meet Joan whose family have a different perspective of finances.
Their stories are narrated in chapters of their own and the language is such that you can imagine the women themselves sha...more
This book ended up on my desk at work and I read it. It was a quick read telling the stories of several girls living in London's East End and working in the Tate and Lyle Sugar Factory. You got an idea of work opportunities for girls at this time period who were not able to get much education or who weren't considered particularly school smart.
I was rating it in our collection for sex, profanity and violence and thought it would be lighter in those areas than it was. Heavy profanity and some vio...more
I was rating it in our collection for sex, profanity and violence and thought it would be lighter in those areas than it was. Heavy profanity and some vio...more
This book is based around 4 young girls who got jobs at the Tate & Lyle factory in the East End of London. It follows how their lives changed throughout the course of their working lives. I sympathised a lot with Joan who has to do something very difficult and I disliked Gladys a lot. The only think I'd criticise was the fact that towards the end Ethel's chapters tended to be more about other people than herself, other than that it was a very interesting read about the sugar girls of the 194...more
Oct 11, 2012
Sarah Beavis
added it
I thoroughly enjoyed this book - I didn't even realise until I'd finished reading it that it was written from interviews with the actual main characters but that just made it all the more enjoyable because it was all true. It really captured the spirit and energy of the East End towards the end of the War and the post-War years. My mum worked in the Birds Custard factory in Birmingham during that period and from what she's said it would appear that Tate & Lyle was quite similar in the way it...more
Sep 24, 2012
Florence Ditlow
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
readers of historical fiction
Recommended to Florence by:
Jane Ryder-Ryan
The authors researched and had nice eye witnesses to the factory worker kids lives, which went from pre WWll to the '80's. Several women team to bag factory sugar, can syrup and survive lean years. Some find love, some are abandoned but they tend to overcome bleak circumstances through stolid sensibility. Historically eye opening to womens' issues.
An interesting study of working life at the Tate & Lyle factory in London's East End in the 1940s and 1950s. In this version the stories of the different women are all divided up and interspersed with each other, which did become a little confusing at times. However, the individual stories are also sold separately which probably would have made for an easier read. It was still a good book though.
Didn't massively enjoy it, found it a bit boring. I thought it was going to have more of a story but it's really just a collection of memories of women who used to work at Tate and lyle sugar factories in the 40s. So unless you are particularly interested in the benefits of working there at that time I wouldn't recommend.
I really enjoyed this book it made a nice change, its all about the Girls from the East end of London who worked in Tate and Lyle sugar factory, and starts in the war onwards, and shares there day to day life with the reader, it brought back many memories of rationing and factory work ect:- even though I'm not from London, a good read.
Totally easy to read and a little frothy, but only in a way that was befitting to a book about a sugar factory. I love stories of London's East End and this was nostalgic and celebratory without being too bummed out about the downfall of the area.
This is a very engaging social history book, which takes the stories of four women as a focal point and weaves in snippets of other people's lives and memories in a very readable narrative. Worth a read - especially for young women who don't realise how much life has changed for them since the fifties!
This was one of my favorite reads this year.
Mainly about the story behind Tate and Lyle sugar factory and its women workers after the second world war, I'm fascinated by this time period and loved every minute of it.
Def worth a read!
Mainly about the story behind Tate and Lyle sugar factory and its women workers after the second world war, I'm fascinated by this time period and loved every minute of it.
Def worth a read!
Although this was an interesting piece of social history, I found that it didn't quite work for me. I found the writing style a touch pedestrian, and the book didn't quite have that spark that makes good social history stand out.
A nice, easy, light read about the mostly teenage girls who worked at the Tate and Lyle sugar refinery in London during the postwar years. One of Amazon's 99p offers, you can check out www.sugargirls.com for a taste of it.
"A bit disappointing, some interesting and humourous bits but a lack of description and character meant the girls became indistinguishable and the book was a harder read as a result. A pleasant enough account but wouldn't recommend or read it again.
A really enjoyable read, full of real people and real life experiences - showcasing how well Tate & Lyles looked after their staff, something modern companies would be well advised to try out to develop the loyalty and hard work ethic needed to maximise profits in these impoverished times! Sometimes sad, sometimes salacious, it was funny, heartwarming and well written too
Now I liked this book. Having grown up in the East End and knowing of that formidable shape of the Tate & Lyle Factory towering high above, I felt it somehow part of my life.
Beautifully written and a pleasure to read.
Beautifully written and a pleasure to read.
Far better than I thought it would be. Excellent use of oral history to create what feels like a merging of memoirs and a novel. I laughed and cried (although to be fair, I was a bit hormonal). Would love to see this made into a tv series.
This is an interesting book especially if you lived in the area (London's East End) during the fifties. An easy read but enjoyable.
Entertaining - interesting glimpse into the past working lives of young women
I enjoyed this book a lot - really gave an insight into factory life and the culture of Tate and Lyle - I am sure that today's employers would be proud of the loyalty the girls showed to the company but even more so to their fellow workers and friends in what we might consider today as a tough environment.
Good book, easy read
Enjoyable read.
Really enjoyed this book which tells us some history of the Tate & Lisle families and the girls who worked in the factories. I really enjoyed reading about the history of the company as well as how life was in the fourties and fifties....real eye opener!
Would recommend this to anyone as you can't help wanting to know more about the ladies and their lives. Shed a tear or two and smiled to myself all the way through.
Thoroughly good read!
Thoroughly enjoyed it, would read again.
Really enjoyed this one. History told in an engaging way through each girl's story.
May 16, 2013
Sureena
is currently reading it
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Duncan grew up in London and read English at Jesus College, Cambridge. He is the editor of Ronald Skirth's First World War memoir The Reluctant Tommy (Macmillan, 2010) and co-author of Star Trek: The Human Frontier (Polity, 2000) and Zippy and Me: The Remarkable Life in Puppets of Rainbow's Ronnie Le Drew (forthcoming, 2011). He also works as an actor and occasional theatre director.
More about Duncan Barrett...
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Mar 03, 2013 02:15pm
Mar 03, 2013 02:59pm