Time Remembered

by Ralph L. Finn

'This is a great book well worth reading. It paints a very true vivid picture, a story of those cherished childhood memories of London's East End.' - LENA KENNEDY. Born just before the First World War, Ralph Finn grew up in London's vanished East End Jewish community. His mother had been a schoolteacher in Russia, his father a scholar in Poland, but in the new country she ran a stall and he pressed clothes for twelve hours a day. Life in Broughton Buildings was hard - rats and bugs, dirt, crowding - but rich in character and experience. There were the Choots and the the anglicized Jews and the recent immigrants from Eastern Europe, the Chocolate King in the street market, and Cockneys calling their wares in Yiddish. This autobiography conveys the spirit of this unique world.

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 18, 1985

Reviews

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this in my teens, published as 'No Tears in Aldgate'. As an Aldgate girl, it moved me then as it moves me now. Never before has a book touched my soul so deep. I know this place, I know those people, I am the author. Maybe this book is more sentimental and personal to me than it would be for you, but the writing is still magnificent, the floodgates of lost memories are open, and I don't want to close them just yet.


21 July 2021
I’ve returned to this book again. All of the above still stands. Quite simply, the best book I’ve ever read. My soul lives here. No Tears In Aldgate, indeed. Just memories that are so devastatingly beautiful, I weep with every one..

[Helen K]

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