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That Summer in Eagle Street
Eagle Street is a little backstreet of the Tower Bridge market, home to a close-knit community of diverse characters.
Dora and John Weston live in one of the small terraced houses with their five children. Amongst their neighbours are the two street gossips; Doris and Phyllis, who know everyone's business and aged Bill Simpson, who tends his pigeons and watches the glorious sunsets from the flat roof of Sunlight Buildings.
It was on this same roof in the summer of 1940 that Linda Weston first fell in love with Charlie Bradley - a childhood crush which has developed and stood the test of separation. Now Charlie has returned from having done his National sevice, keen to make a good future with Linda. When they are both offered jobs by the notorious Carter brothers - local gang leaders - they jump at the chance. But the rival 'Kerrigan' gang hears of the Carters' success and decides that something needs to be done about it - putting Charlie and Linda at risk...
Dora and John Weston live in one of the small terraced houses with their five children. Amongst their neighbours are the two street gossips; Doris and Phyllis, who know everyone's business and aged Bill Simpson, who tends his pigeons and watches the glorious sunsets from the flat roof of Sunlight Buildings.
It was on this same roof in the summer of 1940 that Linda Weston first fell in love with Charlie Bradley - a childhood crush which has developed and stood the test of separation. Now Charlie has returned from having done his National sevice, keen to make a good future with Linda. When they are both offered jobs by the notorious Carter brothers - local gang leaders - they jump at the chance. But the rival 'Kerrigan' gang hears of the Carters' success and decides that something needs to be done about it - putting Charlie and Linda at risk...
560 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
About the author
Harry Bowling
39 books21 followers‘I suppose most people would see the ability to tell a story as a talent to entertain, but where I was born and raised, being able to spin a yarn was considered an asset of survival and, at times, it became a necessity…’ he said.
Harry was born in 1931, in Leroy Street, a back street off the Tower Bridge Road, the second child of Annie and Henry Bowling. His older sister Gladys died of meningitis before her second birthday. Harry’s grandfather worked at a transport yard as a carman-horsekeeper. He used to take Harry there to watch him and to pat the horses. He spent his youth hanging around the Tower Bridge Road market or hunting through Borough Market, a wholesale fruit and veg market near London Bridge, exploring the docklands and wharves, and swimming in the Thames.
Harry’s first contact with books began at the local library encouraged by his father, who was permanently disabled after being wounded during the First World War. Henry Bowling was often unemployed and struggled to support the family. Harry was only ten when the Second World War broke out. He could remember the day when Surrey Docks was bombed. His father helped him with his early education and he and his younger brother passed scholarships to Bermondsey Central School. He left the school at the age of 14 to help the family income by working at a riverside provision merchant as an office boy.
Only when his own children began to ask questions about the war, did Harry realise how many stories he had to tell. He started gathering scribbles and notes and wrote his first book. It was a factual account of the war and Harry realised it would probably have only a limited readership. He became aware that historical fiction was very popular and that there was no one writing about the East End of London, and the war, at that time. In his fifties, he was given early retirement from his job as a brewery driver-drayman, and was at last able to devote his time to writing.
He became known as ‘the King of Cockney sagas’, and he wrote eighteen bestselling novels of London life.
Harry was born in 1931, in Leroy Street, a back street off the Tower Bridge Road, the second child of Annie and Henry Bowling. His older sister Gladys died of meningitis before her second birthday. Harry’s grandfather worked at a transport yard as a carman-horsekeeper. He used to take Harry there to watch him and to pat the horses. He spent his youth hanging around the Tower Bridge Road market or hunting through Borough Market, a wholesale fruit and veg market near London Bridge, exploring the docklands and wharves, and swimming in the Thames.
Harry’s first contact with books began at the local library encouraged by his father, who was permanently disabled after being wounded during the First World War. Henry Bowling was often unemployed and struggled to support the family. Harry was only ten when the Second World War broke out. He could remember the day when Surrey Docks was bombed. His father helped him with his early education and he and his younger brother passed scholarships to Bermondsey Central School. He left the school at the age of 14 to help the family income by working at a riverside provision merchant as an office boy.
Only when his own children began to ask questions about the war, did Harry realise how many stories he had to tell. He started gathering scribbles and notes and wrote his first book. It was a factual account of the war and Harry realised it would probably have only a limited readership. He became aware that historical fiction was very popular and that there was no one writing about the East End of London, and the war, at that time. In his fifties, he was given early retirement from his job as a brewery driver-drayman, and was at last able to devote his time to writing.
He became known as ‘the King of Cockney sagas’, and he wrote eighteen bestselling novels of London life.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 16, 2010
I struggled with this book. I just found it very very dull. Not my thing at all. And it's all written how it's ment to sound which took a while getting used to. I've just started another Harry Bowling book and I don't really want to read it but I don't want to judge it by this book so going to give it try. Hopefully it will be better.
June 16, 2013
I really enjoyed this book. It tells of a time when a community spirit was important, it was survival, because you were all in the same darn boat.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews