Between Charnwood and the Chevin

The developing suburb of Derby, where the author grew up, is described as ‘an uneasy cross between The Stepford Wives and Royston Vasey.’ Her family was ‘ordinary enough’ but could still boast a silent movie actress, a world famous philosopher, several strange family disappearances, a lot of railway folk and involvement in two civil wars. Ancestors had come from the flat lands of Lincolnshire, and others from the far south of Staffordshire, in search of work, settling in Derbyshire and Derby itself, where they stayed and flourished and which this books evokes with such affection. 

The author’s account of her childhood and early teens is filled with warmth and humour as she occasionally looks back In Anger, but more often in laughter. It was the time of Angry Young Men and just slightly Stroppy Young Women.