Jam Butties and a Pan of Scouse

Description

JAM BUTTIES AND A PAN OF SCOUSE is a gritty yet heart-warming memoir set against the backdrop of Liverpool's tightknit working-class community. From tenements to docks, from the hardships of a broken family to the devastation of war, this is a wonderfully uplifting true story of a close-knit community and a family determined to survive. At the tender age of 11, Maggie finds herself the matriarch of the family when her Irish mother runs off with another man. Leaving school at 14 to work at a local factory putting sticks into lollies, she is determined to make a better life for herself and her family - before starting her own family with her childhood sweetheart, who she marries at 19 after 'falling in the family way'. She has one night of married life with her husband before he is sent to India with the Navy and is devastated when she never hears from him again, presuming him a casualty of the war that is raging at home and abroad. But that is not the only tragedy to befall Maggie. Many times she is only able to feed her brood by the kindness of neighbours putting a 'pan of scouse' on the range for her, or feeding her kids jam butties to help out. Maggie's story sweeps across the changing face of Liverpool, from its squalid dock streets, the tenement blocks and cobbled roads to the decline of the docklands and the rise of the Mersey beat, the Beatles and the energy and passion of a city that is home to a cast of colourful characters with the resilience to withstand heartbreak and hardship.

Cathryn Kemp is the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of WE AIN'T GOT NO DRINK, PA and A FISH SUPPER AND A CHIPPY SMILE. She has written across the spectrum of the British press, and in 2002 won the Peter Wilson Award for Journalism before running her own, highly successful press agency. She is also the author of PAINKILLER ADDICT for which she won the Big Red Read Prize for non-fiction in 2013. Aged 95, Margaret Clarke is sprightly and lives in London. Along with her daughter Eileen, she is keen to keep the memories of Liverpool alive through her storytelling.

This gritty memoir... is both an inspiration and an eye-opener. -- Pam Norfolk * LANCASHIRE EVENING POST * This is the fascinating memoir of 95-year-old Maggie Clarke... and it's an at time heart-wrenching tale of family trauma, hardship and happiness grabbed in stolen moments. It's also an insightful chronicle of an ever-changing city. * CHOICE MAGAZINE *