An East End Girl

by Elizabeth Lord, Maggie Ford

Will she ever be anything more than an East End girl? Cissy Farmer longs to escape her life in London's Docklands where times are hard and money is tight. And when she meets the debonair Langley Makepeace, her dream seems within reach. But the price of belonging in Langley's brittle, sophisticated world could be much higher than Cissy ever imagined. Torn between Langley and her gentle childhood sweetheart, Eddie Bennet, she is forced to gamble on her future chance of happiness, a decision that will change her life forever.

Genres: Fiction

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

First published with short stories, went on to writing novels, family sagas and historicals around 1980s. First novel published by Piatkus, London, in 1992. Since then there has been 22 novels published with one in the pipeline and one with my publishers Severn House.
You can check out my books avaialable on Audios and CDs

Reviews

[Layla · Rating 2 out of 5]

started this but couldnt get far into it, didn't hold my interest for long.

[Mavis Hutt · Rating 5 out of 5]

An East end girl by Maggie Ford.

I really enjoyed reading this book so much so I read it in just over a week I couldn't put it down. The plot was so good I couldn't wait for the next part

[Martine Gillard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just a tad difficult to get into. It wasn't a book I couldn't put down.

[mrs m ogier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absorbing read

I tried to read all in one go ,it totally swallowed me up and took me on with the characters.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was going to give it a 4 or 5 but the rushed ending was disappointing

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maggie Ford is the undisputed queen of Cockney sagas and she is back with a stirring, emotional and highly readable tale readers will struggle to put down, An East End Girl.

Life in London’s Docklands is tough. Money is tight, times are hard and opportunities to better oneself are non-existent. Confined to a lifetime of scrimping and saving, the inhabitants of this poor community do not have much in the way of material possessions, but they have plenty of dreams – and Cissy Farmer certainly has got plenty of those! Cissy yearns with all of her heart and soul to shake off the restraining shackles of her poor upbringing for a better life, but little does she realise that life away from the Docklands will come at a bitter and expensive price…

When Cissy meets the dashing, charismatic and debonair Langley Makepeace, she thinks that all of her dreams are about to come true and that a better life away from the dingy and depressing environs she has been confined to since birth is within reach. Langley is her ticket out of the Docklands and into the world of glamour and sophistication which Cissy is sure she belongs to. However, she soon learns that there is a world of difference between fantasy and reality. Langley’s world might, on the surface, appear to be elegant and opulent, yet Cissy quickly realises that it is brittle, heartless and riven with enemies who have no time for an upstart like her. Has Cissy made a dreadful mistake and stumbled into a gilded cage where she will be condemned to mockery, misery and heartbreak?

Eddie Bennett, Cissy’s childhood sweetheart, is a gentle, kind-hearted and generous individual who might not be as suave or as worldly as Langley, but he is the kind of man who would always put Cissy and her happiness first. Torn between two worlds, what is Cissy to do? Will she gamble on an uncertain future and make a decision which she will spend a lifetime regretting? Or will she realise that she needs to look closer to home if she is to be truly happy?

Saga fans have got a wonderful treat in store for them with Maggie Ford’s latest saga, An East End Girl. Packed with pathos, warmth and heart, An East End Girl is a gripping and compelling saga that tugs at the heartstrings and keeps readers engrossed from start to finish with its captivating blend of searing emotion, mesmerizing drama and vivid descriptions of the past.

Cissy is a wonderfully written heroine who is flawed, spirited and realistic and the whole book is packed with richly drawn characters that leap off the pages and linger in the reader’s imagination long after the last page is turned.

A terrific saga that is absolutely perfect for curling up with, An East End Girl is another triumph for Maggie Ford!