Backstreet Child

Tanner #3

by Harry Bowling

A warm and authentic story of Cockney life during the Second World War

Salmon Lane is a quiet Bermondsey backstreet lined with modest brick houses and paved with cobbles. This close-knit community is forced to draw on all their reserves of courage and humour to survive the difficulties of poverty, rationing and nightly air raids. And even as the men are called up, go missing in action or are killed, and homes are bombed, their extraordinary Cockney spirit shines through...

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical

Paperback

First published April 1, 1993

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

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

What a brilliant three book series, I would recommended this author to any one who likes saga's about war time , it was like watching a good series on the telly box , I'm about to read more of Harry Bowling books ,really enjoyed.

[Laura jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harry Bowling is another author you know you are in for a good read.
carrie tanner works hard in her transport business to make sure no rivals take over. she is especially against the galloways
then comes the war and all the changes with it will Bermondesy cope

[Linda Fallows · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great Harry Bowling book.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I could relate a lot as my mother's family were from the Bermondsey area and lived through WW2.
I will definitely check out his other books, great storyteller.

[Helen Fetherston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed it. Good storyline, it all connected and easy to read

[Jacqueline Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably third time I've read this so, as you can guess, I love it!
Enjoy all Harry Bowling novels, so unique, real, educational, heartwarming, romantic, gritty with just fabulous characters!

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another of the social histories from this author, which follows the fortunes of a family of hauliers and the people living in the streets around them in the working districts of London. The wharves are bombed in the Blitz, the men are called up and a feud between two families taints the atmosphere for all around them.

The war is declared halfway through this tale so it can feel slow to begin with. The early part builds on previous books about the hauliers and links the two families once more even as they vie for contracts. The majority of the tale occurs in Bermondsey and nearby Rotherhithe, south of the Thames. The backstreet child of the title refers to Rachel, a daughter of one family, who joins up for war work and goes to an air operations unit where she helps to plot the course of approaching bombers. The whole community is well portrayed and shown to be cohesive in times of trouble.

I enjoyed this read although I had not read the previous two stories about the same characters.

[Wangũi Ng'ang'a · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my second Bowling book, and I was pleasantly surprised. I picked it because I wanted a slow read, but it is such a brilliant novel that my progress was anything but slow. What's that about judging books? Bowling will make you cry and laugh and get angry and get anxious and feel relief...definitely a good read. :-)

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story but as the speech is written with an accent I found it quite confusing to read in places.

[Bella · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an eastend girl, I love his books