Cockney Waif

by Waite Elizabeth

Patsy Kent is just fourteen when her beloved mother Ellen dies of consumption in November 1918. The pregant but unmarries Ellen had fled her respectable family and landed up in Tooting, desperate to find somewhere to live and a place to work. Thus she found Florrie Holmes' place in Strathmore Street. Patsy, born there, has grown up surrounded by loving people who more than compensate for the lack of a family. On her mother's death Patsy gets a job in the same market where Ellen had worked. At sixteen she is pretty and innocent, so that when she meets the gipsy Johnny Jackson at a fair she is bowled over. Hop-picking in Kent with the Jackson clan tarnishes her illusions but then Patsy becomes pregnant and the ill-suited pair marry. Divorce isn't on for people like her; when she really falls in love, with kindle Eddie Owevm it looks as if she must stay shackled to the feckless Johnny.

432 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 1993

Reviews

[Maryam_h_140a512 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cockney Waif is a well written book by Elizabeth Waite. The title of the novel partially explains the story. Cockney means a native of East London, and waif is an abandoned child. In the story, Patsy is the abandoned child. But still, she finds very important people who fill her life. In the other hand, she passes through a lot of obstacles and faces many people who treat her violently.

I highly recommend this book !!! I really got addicted to reading it and fell in love with some of the characters' personalities.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this book for years. I picked it up for a few pence from a rummage sale and it is a lovely easy read story set in the time between the end of the first world war in 1918 and the early 1930s and tells of the life of a young girl growing up in London's Eastend.

It is one of those lovely heartwarming stories, which is a joy to read and is one of my 'comfort reads'.

[Barbra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third book by this author that I have read and have enjoyed each one. She writes romance/saga type novels usually based in the early 1900's.

Back Cover Blurb:
London 1918. Patsy Kent is only thirteen years old when her dear mother dies and leaves her an orphan. But when the authorities try to take her away from Strathmore Street, and the warm, happy-go-lucy Londoners who regard her as one of their own, they have a fight on their hands.
As she becomes a young woman, and starts work in the local market like her mother before her, Patsy discovers all too soon the pain of first love, when cruel Johnny Jackson plays with her emotions and then casts their marriage thoughtlessly aside. Only the support of the market traders and friends who have always stood by her can raise her characteristic cockney spirit, and fortune smiles on Patsy when a real, deep love grows between her and the shy, thoughtful Eddie Owen. But the pointed fingers of the gossips, and the shame of living in adultery may prove too high a price for Patsy to pay, and it seems her only hope for happiness is to leave London and the very community she has come to call her family....