I am splicing this review, running from one idea into the next, because I think that’s a little bit of the magic this book. The perfect time for a book that feels like an endless Summer. Or perhaps because of reading this only days after visiting the seaside. Oh, the gentle charm of it! I had remembered a like sensation this from my first read, hundreds of years ago, but I think I felt it more this time. But I read because that was what I needed to do and I picked up The Family From One End Street. The exertion of making sense of the word, of even turning with the pages, all of it, too much. I picked up The Family From One End Street on a hot, hot day when my brain needed to read but could not quite cope with the effort of it. They slide in and out of hands, out of shelves and into bookshops and into somebody else’s home, moving through the ownership of a thousand readers and always, somehow, being there at the right time, knowing when it is needed, ready for it, so ready). (That’s one of the great appeals of classics for me because they understand that journey more than most. And it’s never personal because you know that when you need it, when you want it, and just as you reach for it, you know that it was always meant to be this book for this moment, nothing else, only this. We’ve all dealt with piles of books to be read and sometimes a book can sit on that pile for weeks if not years. There are times, I think, when the world sends you the right book for the right moment. She died in 1991.The Family From One End Street by Eve Garnett

The Family from One End Street was originally published by Frederick Muller in 1937, followed by The Further Adventures of the Family from One End Street in 1956, and Holiday at Dew Drop Inn in 1962.

Whilst a student, she sketched the people of the East End slums and was haunted by the poverty she had witnessed, resolving to do something to bring the plight of the working-class family to people's attention. Then there's all the children - practical Lily Rose, clever Kate, mischievous twins James and John, followed by Jo, who loves films, little Peg and finally baby William.Ī truly classic book awarded the Carnegie Medal as the best children's book of 1937.Įve Garnett was born in 1900 in Worcestershire, and studied art at Chelsea Polytechnic and the Royal Academy School of Art.

Father is a dustman and Mother a washerwoman. THE FAMILY FROM ONE END STREET by Eve Garnett is the story of everyday life in the big, happy Ruggles family who live in the small town of Otwell. A Puffin Book - stories that last a lifetime.

The family from one end street