The Girl from Guildford Street (Lozells)

The Girl from Guildford Street describes a working class childhood, growing up in Lozells, Birmingham, 1957–1968. The author and her sister and cousins were the last generation to grow up in the back to backs: Birmingham council houses, two up, one down; no bathroom, inside toilet, central heating or hot running water; centred around a back yard with outside toilets, sheds and a brew’us or wash house.

The author looks at family life in the back to backs, and how whole families lived on one street. The author’s parents both worked in local factories at a time when manufacturing was booming in Birmingham.

This is not a misery memoir – it is the story of a happy childhood in one of Birmingham’s poorest areas. It also looks at the Sixties – the fashions, the politics, the music, the hairstyles, the World Cup – as a golden age.