Bøker av Grace Caroline Holte

A Grammar School Girl is the sequel to Grace Caroline Holte's The Girl from Guildford Street, which depicted an idyllic Sixties childhood in the working class Back to Backs of Aston and Lozells, at a time of radical political change when Birmingham was considered the Workshop of the World. The Seventies were a gloomier affair as much of the old city disappeared. Strikes, change and conflict were rife. The Birmingham Bombings marked the darkest day in the city's history. Yet there were happy times. In 1968, the author moved to the Newtown Estate, experiencing teenage trials and tribulations along with the delights of youth clubs and coffee bars. An education at King Edward's Grammar School for Girls, Handsworth, enabled her to attend University, a first for the family. Birmingham survived the troubled decade of the Seventies and emerged with her indomitable spirit intact. This is the story of one family during that era. It is Birmingham's story. It may also be your story.

The Girl from Guildford Street describes a working class childhood, growing up in Lozells, Birmingham, 1957-1968. The author and her sister and cousins were the last generation to grow up in the back to backs: Birmingham council houses, two up, one down; no bathroom, inside toilet, central heating or hot running water; centred around a back yard with outside toilets, sheds and a brew'us or wash house. The author looks at family life in the back to backs, and how whole families lived on one street. The author's parents both worked in local factories at a time when manufacturing was booming in Birmingham. This is not a misery memoir - it is the story of a happy childhood in one of Birmingham's poorest areas. It also looks at the Sixties - the fashions, the politics, the music, the hairstyles, the World Cup - as a golden age.