The poignant account of a poverty-stricken childhood in Liverpool during the 1930s, and the brilliant first volume of autobiography. A bestseller ever since it was published in February 1993. One of the most harrowing but uplifting books you will ever read. Anyone who has enjoyed the Frank McCourt books is going to be equally moved by this magnificent testimony to a little girl's courage.

When Helen Forrester's father went bankrupt in 1930 she and her six siblings were forced from comfortable middle-class life in southern England to utmost poverty in the Depression-ridden North. The running of the household, in slum surroundings and with little food, and the care of the younger children all fell on twelve-year-old Helen. She writes about her experiences without self-pity but rather with a rich sense of humour which makes her account of these grim days heartwarmingly funny as well as shockingly moving.