Twopence To Cross The Mersey

by Helen Forrester

This major best-selling memoir of a poverty-stricken childhood in Liverpool is one of the most harrowing but uplifting books you will ever read.

When Helen Forrester’s father went bankrupt in 1930 she and her six siblings were forced into utmost poverty and slum surroundings in Depression-ridden Liverpool. The running of the household and the care of the younger children all fell on twelve-year-old Helen. With very little food or help from her feckless parents, Helen led a life of unrelenting drudgery and hardship.

Writing about her experiences later in life, Helen Forrester shed light on an almost forgotten part of life in Britain. Written with good humour and a lack of self-pity, Forrester’s memoir of these grim days is as heart-warming as it is shocking.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Autobiography, History, Historical, British Literature

242 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Helen Forrester (real name June Bhatia) (born 1919, Hoylake, Cheshire (now in Merseyside)) is an English-born author famous for her books about her early childhood in Liverpool during the Great Depression as well as several works of fiction.

In 1953 Forrester moved to Edmonton, Canada.

Reviews

[Fiona MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some reason I keep seeing this book in charity shops and have never been tempted to pick it up.. I think I wrongly assumed that Forrester's books were sweeping romantic war sagas which is certainly not my thing... but I decided on my latest trip to the charity shop this weekend that it was such a short book that I might as well give it a go..
Helen Forrester has a gripping and wonderful way of entrancing the reader. Here, in the first volume of her autobiography she and her various siblings are left homeless after their father loses his job in the recession. As a result, all they can manage to find is a dirty, cold room in a boarding house which they make their home. Although they can sometimes go days without food, soap or general basic products needed to keep them alive. Helen is not allowed to go to school, but instead has to look after her siblings who are too young to, and her mother who has recently had an operation cannot do anything for herself and lies about all day on the mouldy bed, expecting Helen to feed and bathe her children.
Helen tells her story with dry wit and sarcasm, and I really think this helps her to make sense of what is going on. She has a fierce spirit and an intelligence that is apart despite her young age. I have already ordered the sequel 'Liverpool Miss'.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really taken with this book about a young girl whose family is thrust into abject poverty when her father's business goes bankrupt. Forced out of their home, the previously well-off family travels to Liverpool to try to find work, only to become one of the thousands left homeless and penniless. It was riveting and sobering, especially in this time of major economic downturn. It's hard to imagine people being so poor they had to burn old shoes in the stove to boil water for tea. The only quibble I have, and it doesn't affect my appreciation for the story at all, is that the back cover describes the story as full of humour, and the author as non-judgmental and not bitter. I found this was far from the truth. To me, young Helen is clearly resentful (if not resigned) of the position she is forced to assume - caring for all her younger siblings instead of going to school. An instructive and eye-opening book. I'll be looking for the other three books next time I'm in the library.

[Shirley Revill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really got into the characters in this book and must admit I needed tissues.
Talented author, brilliant story.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a bit confused with the title. I thought it should be 'Tuppence' not 'Twopence'

This was a true story about the descent into grinding poverty endured by a family used to the finer things in life.

The foreword said it was full of humour, but I didn't find any. It was bleak, and sad, but also interesting.

A trip down memory lane for me.

[Bernie Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this, but not the sudden ending. Hope there is some more to come

[LibraryCin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the author’s memoir of when she was a child. She was the oldest of seven siblings, and at 12(?) years old, her well-off parents declared bankruptcy. It was the 1930s, and they moved to Liverpool, where Helen’s father had grown up, but there was a crazy amount of unemployment there. The family was very poor for a long time and Helen (though she should have been in school until 14) was kept home to look after the youngest kids while her mother first got over an illness, then went to work herself.

Oh, how frustrating were those parents, especially Helen’s mother! How irresponsible of them! They were renting pretty furniture for the living room, while their kids (and themselves) didn’t have enough to eat. And they didn’t have proper beds, clothes, or blankets, either. Helen, though, seemed to be the worst off for food. Even her mother got more (though not always) because she needed to be presentable for work; this is also why the others got more – they needed to be presentable (as much as possible, anyway) for school.

When Helen was finally able to get a job (though that took a lot of fighting on her part, as her parents (particularly her mother) still wanted her to stay home with the younger kids), and she eventually managed to hold on to a little bit of money to buy herself some new clothes (well, new to her), her mother would often either “borrow” them and wear them out herself, or she would just pawn them, often to pay the people coming to collect on what they were owed.

I’ll add that this actually included a second part to the memoir called “Liverpool Miss”. It did end a bit abruptly, though with an epilogue by Helen’s son to explain where Helen eventually ended up (in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) and how she got there. But with regard to the abrupt ending to Helen’s part of the story, it does seem there is a continuation. I will be putting it on my tbr.

[Josephine (Jo) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the books that I come back to and read again every now and then, it is the first part of a quartet in the biography of Helen Forrester and is one of the most touching and honest stories you could read. Set in the 1930's it is I think one of the first in the now booming genre of 'mis lit' but that is not to say that it is in the least mawkish or self-pitying.

When Helen Forrester's father goes bankrupt during the depression, his formerly well off and indulged wife and seven children are thrown into a world far away from their comfortable life in southern England and into the most abject poverty in the slums of Liverpool. With Mr Forrester unable to find work, Mrs Forrester, mother of a newborn baby, unable to cope with the new life and constantly on the edge of a breakdown, poor Helen is left to try and care for her siblings as best she can. Helen is kept at home and not permitted to attend school as her mother is unable to cope, the weight of the total desperation and hopelessness which falls upon the shoulders of this child is overwhelming and the bravery and intelligence of such a brave little girl shines through.
This book opens up a world that no one would want to visit and a life that to most of us would be worse than a horror story. It tugs at the heartstrings and fills you with admiration for Helen.

[Rose Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it incredible that the parents of this family were so irresponsible - firstly to have so many children i and secondly in their poor choices and care of the children when they fell into terrible poverty. The mother, particularly, came across as a hard, bad tempered lady - always pawning what little they had and putting themselves into further debt with unnecessary household furniture (lounge suites etc) when the children didn't even have bedding, warm clothing or food. On top of that, both parents were irresponsible with money and would pawn or clock up debt for packets of cigarettes ahead of the basics.

The times were hard and I don't doubt many other families went through similar times as Helen's family - but she does point out in the book that other people that she met in like manner, seemed to have food and a level of sustainable living.

However, it was a reminder to me that a large part of the world still live like this today and worse - to have a warm house and three meals a day is truly a privilege that should never be overlooked.

[Just · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was just one of those autobiographical novels that was hard to put down. I felt like I was there with the family as they struggled when their father went bankrupt and their privileged middle class was lost poverty of the lowest order with minimal assistance. Having a grandmother who grew up during the depression and war years and knowing how to this day her experiences affect how she spends money and refuses to throw out things long past their use by date I found this book gave me more of an insight into that thinking. I cannot wait to read the next books in the series.

[Barbra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book of a quartet. A wonderful book that will leave a lasting memory with you.

Back Cover Blurb:
When Helen Forrester's father went backrupt in 1930 she and her six siblings were forced from comfortable middle-class life in southern England to utmost poverty in the Depression-ridden North. Her parents more or less collapsed under the strain, father spending hours in search of non-existant work, or in the dole queue, mother on the verge of a breakdown and striving to find and keep part-time jobs. The running of the household, in slum surroundings and with little food, the care of the younger children, all fell on twelve year old Helen. Unable to attend school, Helen's fear that she was to be trapped forever as drudge and housekeeper caused her to despair at times. But she was determined to have a chance and struggled despite her parents to gain an education.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot imagine being Helen Forrester, living in squallor in Liverpool during the Depression, loving school, and being forbidden to attend. How frustrating to be stuck always at home caring for the youngest children, when all you want is to learn, and to have a life! Even so, Helen tells the story of her childhood without bitterness, and without malice toward her parents who handed responsibility to her when it belonged to them.

[Sanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t think this is a particularly good novel, but as a description of the harship experienced by people during the 1930s I enjoyed it immensely. A very vivid account of the duress of a time as well as the systematic harshness of humans against their “othered” own.

[Sylvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really brings home how hard it was in the 1930's if you didn't have a job and couldn't get one. How young children had to grow up very quickly and shoulder a lot of responsibility.

[Kelly 'Perusing Princesses blog' · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me and a few work colleagues had one of those rare moments where we decided to reminisce about those younger days in school - and it's true what they say you know... they really are the best days of your lives, kids!

If there was one lesson that I enjoyed in school, it was English... or literacy as they tend to call it now. Besides the boring Shakespeare and Thomas Hardy GCSE medium that my coursework was based upon (Sorry, I just hated MacBeth and The Mayor of Casterbridge), Twopence to Cross the Mersey was a welcome reprieve and one book that has remained with me; even though I remember sitting in my pink bedroom with the purple and pink hearted wallpaper, crying my little eyes out at the injustice of it all. Looking back, I think I’m right in saying that Helen Forrester was my first true ‘book’ hero because she taught me a very valuable lesson - everyone deserves the right to be heard, even in the most desperate of times. Her love for her siblings and her family shone through, even though that element of resentment simmered, giving her the strength to succeed – every child, no matter where from, how rich, or how poor, has earned the right to an education

Twopense to Cross the Mersey is an inspiring tale of a family who are fighting to survive the war against poverty, and one little girl's will to succeed, even though she is fighting against all the odds.

This is a must read for teenagers and adults, alike. Just make sure you invest in tissues! ;)

[Nikki Bywater · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the remarkable true life story of the author’s poverty-stricken childhood in Liverpool in the 1930’s.

Helen a twelve year old girl and her family move from the South, to their father’s place of birth Liverpool. Where her father hopes to find employment, but with no employment on offer the family slip from living a middle-class life style into deep poverty. With her mother on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Helen is forced to stay at home to help with her younger siblings in a house with no heating and little food and the only clothes she owns are the ones which she is wearing.
This book is a very moving true life account. A book that will really touch your heart about one girl dealt a bad hand in life, who refuses to drown in self-pity but is determined to make her life better and lift her out of the hardship she is going through and to escape the slums, even when her parents refuse her right to an education.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh yes, another story of a poverty stricken childhood, may be your first reaction. This one, however, is very different to others I have read. "Twopence to Cross the Mersey" is the author's story of "adjusting" to life after the family's financial collapse, of moving from a comfortable life - complete with private school and all the comforts of a huge home - in London to the slums of Liverpool at the time of the Great Depression.

Unlike so many of these books, this is not a depressing, maudlin read, but one which really is quite lovely. Nothing is candy coated, but you also know that nothing is written with the intent of making the reader reach for the box of tissues.

This book is a keeper, and I'll look forward to picking up her further works.

[Joel Kimmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir tells the story of a young girl who was tasked with taking care of her brothers and sisters, forgoing schooling, and giving them all the chance at a brighter future while sacrificing the possibility of a future for herself.
Sleeping on newspapers, eating very little and wearing the same clothes for years, this family experienced a terrible downturn during the depression.
This was a hard read as there was no fun or pleasure for this family, only great difficulty, stress, anger and sacrifice. There is hope though, and caring for one's family, so rest assured there is a break in the clouds at the end.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the book that introduced me, as a teen, into loving reading out of choice. I read this when I was about 13 and was hooked, and went on to read the other three sequels.

A story of a young girl whose family are thrown into abject poverty in Liverpool in the 1930's. Her story as the eldest child, a cruel mother and a hopeless father. I hope to read these again one day.

A must read for anyone who enjoys historical memoirs. Beautifully written.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lesson to be learned as the 1950 protection of welfare, health provision and education is being stripped from the UK. Several of the reviewers blame her parents for not making the best of the situation they were in but 'child mothers' were a common way for families to make ends meet and of course we only ever hear her side..... reading about her I'm glad she went on to have a long and satisfying life. And she brings the physical city of Liverpool alive.

[Stella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superbly written, do not judge this book on its cover. It is just as important as The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropist or The Road To Wigan Pier. Read it. Read it and pass it on so everyone can read it....but mostly read it for how utterly relevant it is now and how utterly important it is for us to keep every single public library open. Libraries (and kindness - who was that young policeman?) save lives. Fact.

[Judith Paterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have given 3 stars as I really want to know what happened next. But it is a real miserable story. There is little humour or light relief at all.
However it is a fascinating look at how hard life was for those with no job or income in the 30s, pre Welfare State.

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A shocking look at a childhood in poverty during the 30s in Liverpool. So awful that you wish this were fiction.

[Serena · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written novel clearly illustrating the hardships faced in Liverpool through the eyes of a determined female heroine.

[Caroline Southgate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poor girl, same age as my son having to grow up quickly to look after her sisters and brothers in complete poverty while mum and dad looked for work when she just wanted to attend school

[Girl with her Head in a Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

For my fully review: https://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/...

This book stirred up quite the whirlwind of emotions for me. First of all, it is both one of the best and worst books to read during a cost of living crisis. It's about poverty, real horrible grubby hungry poverty. It is an unflinching account of a childhood spent in the worst of conditions; without food, without clothes, without shoes and without hope. But more than that, on a personal level this book is a missed conversation. I was given a second-hand copy of it in 1996 by a friend of my grandparents. She was a retired headmistress who approved heartily of my budding bookworm tendencies and who had the habit of giving me an occasional ten pounds (an astronomical sum at the time) with the agreement that I would buy books and then write to her and tell her about them. This was the only time she ever gave me a book directly and I looked at the dingy seventies cover and shrank from it. It has taken me until now to finally read it and I have so many thoughts and that lovely lady is now long dead. I'm sorry, Miss B, this is a fantastic book but I was just too young to see past the cover.

Author Helen Forrester (pen name of June Bhatia) refers to this series as autobiographical novels rather than direct memoirs. Despite this, there is such a raw feeling to the entire book that I wondered if that was a label that she had applied in order to give herself some distance from her personal trauma. Not her name, not her pain. But June Bhatia really was the eldest of seven children born to a pair of spendthrift socialites who existed on credit and then floundered during the 1930s Depression. Overnight, the nanny and the cook and the maid all vanished. She never went back to her private school again. Instead the family found themselves sitting in Liverpool station with all their earthly belongings packed in suitcases and the dawning realisation that life had changed forever.

The title refers to the twopence required to get a ferry across the Mersey to the Wirral, the latter being the more affluent area of Merseyside where Helen had spent happy summer holidays staying with her grandmother during her parents' affluent years. In a different novel - a different life - one might have expected that the heroine would find the twopence and seek sanctuary with her relative. But her grandmother washed her hands of her financially irresponsible son and her grandchildren along with him. Happiness might be only twopence away but it was utterly out of reach.

It is startling to read just how swift was the family's plunge into destitution. Finding somewhere to house nine people was hard enough. They had to made do with filthy mattresses without washing facilities. Helen's father spent hours everyday in the dole queue looking for work which was nowhere to be found. Helen's mother collapsed under the strain and anyway was never suited to domesticity. The dole money is barely enough to keep them from starving but at least Helen's siblings get to attend school. With her mother unable to cope and her father busy at the business of being unemployed, the management of the house and the care of her baby brother Edward falls to Helen. It is heartbreaking as she slips into drudgery, her shoes pawned since she is not going out and her parents snide or angry if she suggests that she might need an education. From early on, Helen is clearly terrified that this life will overwhelm her and that she will find no escape.

The fecklessness of Helen's parents makes for painful reading. They have no real plan for improving their family's situation. They do not even notice that they are paying three times the market rent. The family repeatedly comes up short for the week because the parents have blown the dole money on cigarettes. Honestly, I feel like this book should be required reading for everyone who ever complains about free school meals and snarks that people should not have children if they cannot feed them. Because there are still children who are having to live like this and it really does not matter what their parents have done. Children do not deserve to go hungry just to teach a lesson to the adults in their life. When the pandemic hit and the schools prepared to close, I thought of the child I taught all those years ago who was going to be sent home with suspected chickenpox and how he burst into tears because he knew that this meant that he would miss out on his meal. Honestly, it made me feel physically sick to think of him and the thousands like him. If you think that the child is hungry because their parents are lazy, feed them anyway.

There are various vignettes which stick in the mind. Young Helen running round the milk bottles on people's doorsteps and skimming off the top of each and topping up with water so that she has something to put in her baby brother's bottle. Ultimately, a local policeman witnesses her in the act and begins anonymously paying for a pint of milk to be delivered to the family. In recent weeks, Lee Anderson MP has sounded out his putrescent views on families in poverty. A recent soundbite was around his belief that families today are less 'resourceful' and hence their reliance on food banks. I do wonder if he has ever read this memoir. Helen may have been 'resourceful' to steal milk to keep her baby brother alive but it is surely the sign of a healthier society if a system is in place to mean that such extreme measures are never required. It may be resourceful to pawn your children's coats and shoes but again, this is not something we should feel nostalgia for.

I worry that programmes such as Call the Midwife have led to a rose-tinted view of a time period which had far higher infant and child mortality and lower general life expectancy. I think back to my own early judgement on this book. The cover has the same sort of aesthetic which I associate with those kind of women's historical romance sagas. It feels as if publishers have unfairly dismissed it as for a mainly female audience when in fact it is a fairly devastating insider account of social hardship and deprivation. Charles Dickens writes about his time in the blacking factory, a classic is born and the world recognises an injustice. The same does not seem to hold true for female writers. It reminds me of how Eve Garnett set out to expose the evils of inner city poverty and extreme class division but found that the best avenue open to her was via the medium of children's fiction - the result was The Family From One End Street. It's a classic book but it seems unfair that female writers are unable to access the same platforms as their male counterparts.

I think of all of this now and I feel sadness that I cannot talk about it all to the lady who originally gave me the book. Of course, if I had read it then I would not have had the language or life experience to form the opinions I have now. I would have just found it sad. I would have felt for Helen and the injustice of her situation but I would not have understood the wider social issues. But the greater regret is just that I never got to know Miss B as an adult. I wonder about what she saw as a headmistress in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. She was a thoughtful woman who gifted this book to tell me something. I would love to be able to sit down for a cup of tea and hear what that was. As we crawl through the cost of living crisis, we need to remember that society has a duty to protect the vulnerable even (especially) in times of scarcity. The right wing press and our corrupt Tory government champion 'hard-working families' and would have us demonise families living in a state of want. But the truth is that even those of us working flat out could find ourselves among the destitute through just a few mis-steps. Helen Forrester was a young woman of steel, fighting for her education against all possible odds. Her story is an incredibly powerful one and I will be following it up with the sequels. A book to both open eyes and to bring tears, this feels like required reading.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading about Helen’s life growing up, very inspirational.

[Paula Hartharn-Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good to re-read and reflect how things have changed.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geez, some kids have it tough.

[Libby Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have ever read.

[Allison Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bleak, but important. I learned a lot.