Waggoner's Way

by Harry Bowling

In Waggoner's Way, Bermondsey, the Brennens and the Kellys have been friends for years. Kay, the youngest of the Brennen girls, loves Pat Kelly but when he returns from the war in Europe he starts going out with Eileen Carter. The day he marries Eileen is the worst of Kay's life. The two families become involved in local dramas, from the escapades of local villains to a fire in the freight yard. When moneylender Grace Dines is killed, Danny Adams is arrested for her murder. Only Kay's sister Elsie knows the truth - and she has been found unconscious in her own home...

656 pages, Hardcover

First published June 8, 1995

About the author

‘I suppose most people would see the ability to tell a story as a talent to entertain, but where I was born and raised, being able to spin a yarn was considered an asset of survival and, at times, it became a necessity…’ he said.

Harry was born in 1931, in Leroy Street, a back street off the Tower Bridge Road, the second child of Annie and Henry Bowling. His older sister Gladys died of meningitis before her second birthday. Harry’s grandfather worked at a transport yard as a carman-horsekeeper. He used to take Harry there to watch him and to pat the horses. He spent his youth hanging around the Tower Bridge Road market or hunting through Borough Market, a wholesale fruit and veg market near London Bridge, exploring the docklands and wharves, and swimming in the Thames.

Harry’s first contact with books began at the local library encouraged by his father, who was permanently disabled after being wounded during the First World War. Henry Bowling was often unemployed and struggled to support the family. Harry was only ten when the Second World War broke out. He could remember the day when Surrey Docks was bombed. His father helped him with his early education and he and his younger brother passed scholarships to Bermondsey Central School. He left the school at the age of 14 to help the family income by working at a riverside provision merchant as an office boy.

Only when his own children began to ask questions about the war, did Harry realise how many stories he had to tell. He started gathering scribbles and notes and wrote his first book. It was a factual account of the war and Harry realised it would probably have only a limited readership. He became aware that historical fiction was very popular and that there was no one writing about the East End of London, and the war, at that time. In his fifties, he was given early retirement from his job as a brewery driver-drayman, and was at last able to devote his time to writing.

He became known as ‘the King of Cockney sagas’, and he wrote eighteen bestselling novels of London life.

Reviews

[mr b j hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

ANOTHER FANTASTIC READ

This was another book to take me into the world of the East End of London,reliving my own memories of those happy days. Deserves to be read by everyone as well as his other books.

[Lucky Cullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

waggoners way is set in the back streets in the south of bermondsey,it has tidy houses running along side the street.It is about two families the Brennens and the kelleys,the families are both working class families tom kelley is a shunter and joe brennens is a train driver.The families encounter love trouble with the youngest girl of the brennens kay. She has feel in love with pat kelley since he returned from war, but he has feel is dating another women.kay doesn't think the relationship will last very long, untilshe finds out pat is getting married to the women.

The families are always getting envolved with trouble in the area, and i can relate to this because i am from bermondsey and he is a friend of my great uncle. Harry was a bermondey boy and all his books are about bermondsey.


lucky cullen

[S. Williamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first Harry Bowling book. I was hooked after the first chapter!