Getting There: a dramatic saga of how an innocent young girl finds herself entangled in the 1960s East End underworld from bests

Description

What's a nice girl like Lorna Wright doing with an East-End bad boy like Richie Clayton? The world is changing and London is swinging: it's the 1960s. But in the East End the docks are closing and life will never be the same for the families who have worked there for generations, among them the Wright family. Lorna Wright is a nice girl, but Richie Clayton is bad news: a violent thug who will stop at nothing to climb his way to the top of the East-End underworld. The more Lorna gets mixed up in his ugly, brutal world, the more she finds herself in trouble too. There are plenty of people who'd like to see Richie stopped. So when, after a terrible row with Lorna, Richie is found murdered, the finger of accusation points in all sorts of directions...

Gilda O'Neill was born and brought up in the East End, where her grandmother ran a pie and mash shop, her grandfather was a tug skipper and her great-uncle worked as a minder for a Chinese gambling den owner. She left school at fifteen but returned to education as a mature student, studying with the Open University and the Polytechnic of East London, and taking an M. A. at the University of Kent while lecturing part time. She is now a full-time writer, and has had eight novels and three non-fiction books published. She lives in East London with her husband and family.

"A thumping good read." -- Lesley Pearse