Trouble In Paradise by Pip Granger
It is 1945, and all over England people are looking forward to being at peace again. Except for one woman. For recently married Zelda, peace means the return of her husband, and this is bad news indeed. Zelda has had to marry Charlie Fluck because she was pregnant by him. And the Fluck clan are backed by the unsavoury Holes, at the centre of whose criminal empire sits Ma Hole like a large malevolent toad. Not only is Zelda frightened of her husband - and she has reason to be, having lost her baby due to a bad 'fall' when Charlie pushed her down the stairs - but so is her good friend, Zinnia Makepeace, local midwife, herbalist, wise woman and layer out of bodies. Her house fronts Paradise Gardens, and she has the choicest of garden allotments - both of which Ma Hole is determined to have at any cost. Meanwhile young Tony, Zelda's nephew, is going off the rails. His dad's missing, presumed dead, his mum is in a state, and he's running wild with Bung 'Ole, or Brian Hole as his police records call him. But Tony can sing. He has, in fact, the voice of an angel. So Zelda arranges for Tony to have singing lessons to straighten him out - and this takes her to Soho, where she meets Maggie and Bert Fetherby who run a cheerful and very busy cafe in Old Compton Street. When Zelda reads Maggie's cards, and tells her that she can see a baby, she is unprepared for the tears that follow. For Maggie has always wanted a baby, and it seems that this is the one thing that she and Bert cannot have. Zelda knows there's a solution - but she has reckoned without the trouble now raging back in Paradise Gardens...
"Highly evocative of a time, a place, a people, and a changing way of life in London at the end of World War II, this is a satisfying, compelling novel" Booklist "Writing from the heart, Granger is unique in popular fiction in that she is able to tie in a fictional family saga with the big social changes going on in post war London.It's also a great Tube read, that takes you on a nostalgic journey back to a lost cockney paradise that never was." What's On in London "Heart-warming East End story, brimming with lively characters and the issues and problems affecting a London community in 1945." Peterborough Evening Telegraph "'She brings the East End to life'" Barbara Windsor
Part of Pip Granger's early childhood was spent in the back seat of a light aircraft as her father smuggled brandy, tobacco and books across the English Channel to be sold in 1950s Soho, where she lived above the Two Is Cafe in Old Compton Street. She travelled in Europe and Asia in the 1960s and '70s, and worked as a Special Needs teacher in Hackney in the 1980s, before quitting teaching to pursue her long-cherished ambition to write. She now lives in the West Country with her husband and pets. Pip Granger's novels, Not All Tarts Are Apple, which won the Harry Bowling Prize for fiction, The Widow Ginger, and Trouble in Paradise are all available as Corgi paperbacks.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780552150668 |
| ISBN 10 | 0552150665 |
| Title | Trouble In Paradise |
| Author | Pip Granger |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Transworld Publishers Ltd |
| Year published | 2004-04-01 |
| Number of pages | 528 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |