East End at Your Feet

by Farrukh Dhondy

This is a selection of six stories about London teenagers from Asian and English families. The author describes, through the teenagers' eyes, their life in Britain today

112 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1976

About the author

Farrukh Dhondy is an Indian-born British writer, playwright, screenwriter and left-wing activist of Parsi descent. He is well known not only for his writing, but also for his film and TV work.

Reviews

[Capn]

Books for Keeps, 4 Sept 1980:
Biting, no-holds-barred stories of Bangladeshi youth firmly living their lives in London. Defiant stories, with spirited characters who proclaim 'I'm here' to the racist society which surrounds them. For second to fifth years in secondary schools
//
This collection of stories was sparked by an enterprising commission from Martin Pick, an editor with Macmillan Educational. 'He'd heard my reputation as some kind of Black politico and he came up one afternoon after school, we had a chat and he said, 'Why don't you do it?' I was a bit sceptical at the
time — I didn't know whether I should branch into writing short stories, especially for a series like Topliners because I thought Topliners was trash. But then I thought, "A series doesn't necessarily damn a book." And I have liked some Topliners.' I don't know if I ever thought, "Now what can I write that I can use in the classroom also?'" Nevertheless, the stories are read time and again in schools, particularly Pushy's Pimples (in which Pushpa is persuaded by her white friend to try sex as a cure for spots) and K.B.W. (which tells how a typhoid scare edges the racism in Devonmount flats from
abuse to violence). 'Lots of teachers want to use that to demonstrate what happens in the East End. It
generates plenty of discussion.'

https://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-conten...

[Hau-Yu Tam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sociologically valuable and light-hearted evocation of young South Asian lives in the East End in the 70s. Given Dhondy's background, I expected more political stories, but aside from 'KBW' (Keep Britain White) and 'Good at Art', which deal with racism, there isn't much on that front. Interesting reading overall

[Babasa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really nice collection of stories with a lot of heart - maybe not the most structurally complex, not the most diverse range of themes, but the way they're handled is really heartwarming. The title story is a standout, I wish there were more of that callibre in there.

[Abdi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeg elsker denEastend at My Feet