What do you think?
Rate this book
West End Girls
West End Girls [Paperback]
Paperback
First published July 22, 2010
13 people are currently reading
485 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
August 16, 2019
This is a mad tour of the underworld West End seen through the eyes of a very naive young woman who thoroughly embraced the life style, people and the amount of money she made as a maid, in essence a PA rather than cleaner. After she left off maiding she became quite a famous painter, and this book was published only after her death.
__________
Notes on reading Ten-star read. This book has really upset me. Here I am in 40s Soho with a bunch of hard-working whores, their maids, their ponces and assorted small-time criminals and it's fascinating. Each of the characters is real. If you made a film, I could point out just by one look or hearing a phrase who was Mae, who was Rita and which sly-eyed character was the despicable Tony. AND I"VE FINISHED THE BOOK. I want back into this world, it's just ended too soon.
This is a 10 star book and it's made me want to downgrade Legal Tender: True Tales of a Brothel Madam, I did downgrade it to a 2, more would be mean but how to show the difference between two books on a very similar subject where one is the best memoir I've read this year and the other is forgettable?
________________________
I've just finished the rather mediocre memoir Legal Tender: True Tales of a Brothel Madam and staying with the same theme, I'm reading the much better written memoir of a noted artist's early career as a working girls' maid in the early years after WWII set in Soho, London's area of sin and debauchery! (I used to work there, but in an office!)
__________
Notes on reading Ten-star read. This book has really upset me. Here I am in 40s Soho with a bunch of hard-working whores, their maids, their ponces and assorted small-time criminals and it's fascinating. Each of the characters is real. If you made a film, I could point out just by one look or hearing a phrase who was Mae, who was Rita and which sly-eyed character was the despicable Tony. AND I"VE FINISHED THE BOOK. I want back into this world, it's just ended too soon.
This is a 10 star book and it's made me want to downgrade Legal Tender: True Tales of a Brothel Madam, I did downgrade it to a 2, more would be mean but how to show the difference between two books on a very similar subject where one is the best memoir I've read this year and the other is forgettable?
________________________
I've just finished the rather mediocre memoir Legal Tender: True Tales of a Brothel Madam and staying with the same theme, I'm reading the much better written memoir of a noted artist's early career as a working girls' maid in the early years after WWII set in Soho, London's area of sin and debauchery! (I used to work there, but in an office!)
April 16, 2021
West End Girls: The Real Lives, Loves and Friendships of 1940s Soho and its Working Girls
(2010) is candid, fascinating and funny whilst also clear eyed, unsentimental and disturbing.
Barbara Tate was a naive teenager who left her abusive grandmother's home the moment she turned 21 and was legally able to do so. After a couple of short term jobs she became a "maid" for Mae, a Soho prostitute. A maid, in this context, was someone who acted as a receptionist, took the money and was a deterrent should a client turn violent and the role was a legal requirement. Other tasks included cleaning and tidying, making tea for Mae and any friends who might drop round, greeting the punters and showing them into the kitchen anteroom, locking the door against drunks, hiding the takings and buying condoms in large trade quantities.
Before Soho became known for its sex shops, strip clubs and porn cinemas in the 1970s it was London's main red light district. The working girls would wander the streets and return with their clients. Mae was so popular she often had queues waiting for her, she was also an incredibly hard worker. Towards the end of their association Mae started taking stimulants to increase the takings and one Benzedrine fuelled 36 hour marathon saw Mae have about 150 men.
West End Girls is full of funny and touching stories however there was also a very dark side to this life too. This was the era of Maltese ponces and gangsters (most famously the Messina brothers). A ponce would gradually insert themselves into the lives of many working girls. First by charm and flattery until through a combination of psychology and coercion the woman was handing over all her earnings to him. Mae falls for a number of ponces and ultimately they destroy her.
Barbara Tate later achieved success as a painter, was a member of the Royal Society of Artists and was lifetime honorary president of the Society of Women Artists.
If that sounds of interest then I highly recommend reading this gripping and well written memoir.
4/5
Barbara Tate was 17 when she heard the whispered word that would change her life: Soho. It would take four years for Barbara to escape her loveless home but when she finally made it to the forbidden streets of Soho - just as London was recovering from the trauma of the second world war - things would never be the same again.
There the naive Barbara meets the beautiful and capricious Mae. When she takes a job as Mae's maid, Barbara imagines she'll be housekeeping. But down a shabby backstreet, Barbara discovers the secret lives of Soho's working girls.
Barbara Tate was a naive teenager who left her abusive grandmother's home the moment she turned 21 and was legally able to do so. After a couple of short term jobs she became a "maid" for Mae, a Soho prostitute. A maid, in this context, was someone who acted as a receptionist, took the money and was a deterrent should a client turn violent and the role was a legal requirement. Other tasks included cleaning and tidying, making tea for Mae and any friends who might drop round, greeting the punters and showing them into the kitchen anteroom, locking the door against drunks, hiding the takings and buying condoms in large trade quantities.
Before Soho became known for its sex shops, strip clubs and porn cinemas in the 1970s it was London's main red light district. The working girls would wander the streets and return with their clients. Mae was so popular she often had queues waiting for her, she was also an incredibly hard worker. Towards the end of their association Mae started taking stimulants to increase the takings and one Benzedrine fuelled 36 hour marathon saw Mae have about 150 men.
West End Girls is full of funny and touching stories however there was also a very dark side to this life too. This was the era of Maltese ponces and gangsters (most famously the Messina brothers). A ponce would gradually insert themselves into the lives of many working girls. First by charm and flattery until through a combination of psychology and coercion the woman was handing over all her earnings to him. Mae falls for a number of ponces and ultimately they destroy her.
Barbara Tate later achieved success as a painter, was a member of the Royal Society of Artists and was lifetime honorary president of the Society of Women Artists.
If that sounds of interest then I highly recommend reading this gripping and well written memoir.
4/5
Barbara Tate was 17 when she heard the whispered word that would change her life: Soho. It would take four years for Barbara to escape her loveless home but when she finally made it to the forbidden streets of Soho - just as London was recovering from the trauma of the second world war - things would never be the same again.
There the naive Barbara meets the beautiful and capricious Mae. When she takes a job as Mae's maid, Barbara imagines she'll be housekeeping. But down a shabby backstreet, Barbara discovers the secret lives of Soho's working girls.
March 10, 2015
A fascinating glimpse into the lives of prostitutes in the 1940s, in the form of a memoir written by (now deceased) artist Barbara Tate, West End Girls is a little bit juicy and more than a little bit poignant. "Babs" tells us chiefly about her early twenties in which, seduced in a sense by her strict Grandmother's disapproval for Soho, she became a "maid". Maid, as she (and I!) soon discovered, was not necessarily the most domestic of jobs and, nowadays, I'd imagine we'd term her a PA. Not that many PA's job descriptions include anything like the duties that fell to her! Think everything from guarding the money to installing a "secret" window for voyeurs to pet sitting, buying condoms by the bucket load, making endless cups of tea, helping move people in bondage, treating a case of crabs... just about anything you could imagine a prostitute's Personal Assistant doing.
I felt deeply connected to the various women that "Babs" was "maid" for and I cried for the fate of Mae, who was a bit of a Marilyn Monroe character - full of sex appeal, incredibly impulsive and flighty but desperately looking for love from her "ponces", defending their crimes no matter what and also insecure and easily manipulated. Like... I don't know - a bright star that burns hard until it burns out - in this case, literally. I wish more was known about her death, but this is hardly a criticism of the book - you can't tell the reader something you don't know.
It seems a pity that Tate passed away before her book made it to publication. It's not only that she missed the book she worried would embarrass her family become a bestseller but that in feeling so immersed in and connected to her story I am convinced she would have made a formidable writer.
I'm glad to read that West End Girls was adapted for the theatre. Towards the end of the book, Tate revisits Soho and notes the irony in the usually elegantly dressed working girls being forced off the streets for the sake of public decency/"morality" only to be replaced with sex shops and adult cinemas with huge pictures of naked "actors" which are, arguably, more obviously salacious or offensive. The working girls she wrote about had their standards and their own sense of decorum. Somehow thinking of her story being in theatre as well seems as though it's come full circle.
I felt deeply connected to the various women that "Babs" was "maid" for and I cried for the fate of Mae, who was a bit of a Marilyn Monroe character - full of sex appeal, incredibly impulsive and flighty but desperately looking for love from her "ponces", defending their crimes no matter what and also insecure and easily manipulated. Like... I don't know - a bright star that burns hard until it burns out - in this case, literally. I wish more was known about her death, but this is hardly a criticism of the book - you can't tell the reader something you don't know.
It seems a pity that Tate passed away before her book made it to publication. It's not only that she missed the book she worried would embarrass her family become a bestseller but that in feeling so immersed in and connected to her story I am convinced she would have made a formidable writer.
I'm glad to read that West End Girls was adapted for the theatre. Towards the end of the book, Tate revisits Soho and notes the irony in the usually elegantly dressed working girls being forced off the streets for the sake of public decency/"morality" only to be replaced with sex shops and adult cinemas with huge pictures of naked "actors" which are, arguably, more obviously salacious or offensive. The working girls she wrote about had their standards and their own sense of decorum. Somehow thinking of her story being in theatre as well seems as though it's come full circle.
July 25, 2019
Barbara Tate was a fairly famous artist, specializing in botanical paintings, but before she really got started in the art world she worked a couple of years as a "maid" to several prostitutes in the West End/Soho area of London.
Maid is in quotes because Tate's duties were more like those of a personal assistant than our usual idea of a maid. She did do some housekeeping chores, but mainly her function was as companion and general helper. She was there first and formost to ensure that the johns knew there was someone else in the apartment, and to safeguard the money, of which there was a surprising amount at the end of a working day.
Tate writes with a dry wit that somehow softens many of the harsh realities of her story, and her extreme naivety when she first began work comes across as charmingly innocent rather than woefully uninformed.
Her main employer is Mae, a larger-than-life figure who is beautiful, glamorous, fun-loving and charismatic. Tate grows to love her dearly, but Mae has her demons too. Even before she descends into amphetamine adiction, she is scatterbrained and reckless, and she also displays a streak of meanness and a capacity for manipulation that Tate finally sees clearly when it is turned against her.
Tate writes of Mae and her fellow working girls and their "ponces" (we'd call them pimps but in that time and place, a pimp was more like a tout, directing the customers where to go to find what they were looking for) vividly; they are as varied as any other group of people brought together by circumstances, and they're brought to life on the page.
This was a wonderful, fast, and often very funny read. And while prostitution is its primary subject matter, Tate never goes into detail about the acts themselves.
Maid is in quotes because Tate's duties were more like those of a personal assistant than our usual idea of a maid. She did do some housekeeping chores, but mainly her function was as companion and general helper. She was there first and formost to ensure that the johns knew there was someone else in the apartment, and to safeguard the money, of which there was a surprising amount at the end of a working day.
Tate writes with a dry wit that somehow softens many of the harsh realities of her story, and her extreme naivety when she first began work comes across as charmingly innocent rather than woefully uninformed.
Her main employer is Mae, a larger-than-life figure who is beautiful, glamorous, fun-loving and charismatic. Tate grows to love her dearly, but Mae has her demons too. Even before she descends into amphetamine adiction, she is scatterbrained and reckless, and she also displays a streak of meanness and a capacity for manipulation that Tate finally sees clearly when it is turned against her.
Tate writes of Mae and her fellow working girls and their "ponces" (we'd call them pimps but in that time and place, a pimp was more like a tout, directing the customers where to go to find what they were looking for) vividly; they are as varied as any other group of people brought together by circumstances, and they're brought to life on the page.
This was a wonderful, fast, and often very funny read. And while prostitution is its primary subject matter, Tate never goes into detail about the acts themselves.
April 16, 2011
I opened this book in the store, read a couple of pages, and could barely close it long enough to hand to the cashier so I could leave. The prose is fabulous (in most parts) and I think it's a real shame that the author died before writing any more books.
That being said though, the book could really have benefited from some heavy editing. There were whole sections that were wonderfully gripping, and other whole sections that were clumsy and forced. It was as if the main story was really what 'worked' for the author, but then she was told it needed to be a bit longer and she padded it out with any old rubbish.
There is an editor's note at the end which comments on how the memoir was only lightly edited on purpose to leave the story true and intact - I say bollocks. Even memoirs need to read well, it's important to know what to put in and what to leave out.
3 stars = I enjoyed it, but probably wouldn't read it again.
That being said though, the book could really have benefited from some heavy editing. There were whole sections that were wonderfully gripping, and other whole sections that were clumsy and forced. It was as if the main story was really what 'worked' for the author, but then she was told it needed to be a bit longer and she padded it out with any old rubbish.
There is an editor's note at the end which comments on how the memoir was only lightly edited on purpose to leave the story true and intact - I say bollocks. Even memoirs need to read well, it's important to know what to put in and what to leave out.
3 stars = I enjoyed it, but probably wouldn't read it again.
November 15, 2010
An incredible tale that almost didn't make it to publication. Barbara Tate tells the story of her time as a prostitute's maid in Soho in a light engaging style that makes for easy reading. On several levels it's an amazing tale - the story itself and the insight it gives into Soho then and when she revisited later; how she came to be there at all; how the book came to be blocked when she first tried for publication (that story is added at the end). She went on to have a very successful career as an artist, coming back to her manuscript in later life. It feels as though it should be a tragedy that she didn't live to see the book in print, and yet having heard her tale, I suspect the big thing for her was to know that it was on the way.
February 27, 2011
Could not put this down and read it in a matter of hours. I am fascinated by people who seem normal yet have secret aspects to their lives. Barbara does not seem jaded by her experiences and her compassion for these people touches me.
December 4, 2011
An enjoyable and insightful read.
I felt as though some of the characters in this book had become my friends - It's all in the way Tate portrays them I guess, maybe it's that I saw a little of myself in Barbara.
The end of the book almost had me feeling like I was grieving for someone, yet you could almost see it coming - I still found myself reading on to find out what became of these people, and with each person a hope of happier times. Although it wasn't the case I would certainly read this again.
Tate raises good points on how the girls who were running their businesses were pushed out of sight for seedy massage parlours to spring up and billboards with women who weren't dressed as well as the working girls may have been.
After reading this book I had to hand it back to my local library (which incidentally is in a red light district) and felt a pang of loss at putting it on the counter. It was easy to feel for the characters and you felt like you really knew some of them, especially Barbara.
On the whole I feel like I have caught a glimpse into another, darker yet crazy and hectic world and am happy to have 'met' those girls.
I felt as though some of the characters in this book had become my friends - It's all in the way Tate portrays them I guess, maybe it's that I saw a little of myself in Barbara.
The end of the book almost had me feeling like I was grieving for someone, yet you could almost see it coming - I still found myself reading on to find out what became of these people, and with each person a hope of happier times. Although it wasn't the case I would certainly read this again.
Tate raises good points on how the girls who were running their businesses were pushed out of sight for seedy massage parlours to spring up and billboards with women who weren't dressed as well as the working girls may have been.
After reading this book I had to hand it back to my local library (which incidentally is in a red light district) and felt a pang of loss at putting it on the counter. It was easy to feel for the characters and you felt like you really knew some of them, especially Barbara.
On the whole I feel like I have caught a glimpse into another, darker yet crazy and hectic world and am happy to have 'met' those girls.
January 8, 2016
Absolutely stunning writing and compelling reading. To think this actually happened and not that long ago is amazing and yet the entire story has a comforting feel. This was a very different time to what Soho has to offer today but this was Soho life .... Real life ..... And Barbara Tates portrayal of the characters who lived that life is both honest and real. What a remarkable woman she must have been. To have lived (and survived) the Soho life and then to have moved on to become a loving wife and mother is truly the real story. The book revolves around the life of Mae Roberts but truly Barbara Tate is the real heroine of this story. How I wish she had been my friend.
March 4, 2012
A beautifully written account of a world I could not have imagined on my own. Without malice this woman wrote about how it was. Could not put it down.
December 9, 2020
Definitely a "ten star" read
A window into a world that u'll never know ..... interesting insight into the life of 'working girls' in 1940's Soho.. memoir of two years the author spent working as a prostitute’s “maid”--housekeeper, companion, cashier, and errand girl-Barbara Tates portrayal of the characters who lived that life is both honest and real..... eye opening chapter to the life of sex workers of 1940's . how they have to deal with struggles day to day to make a living wither by choice or by orders of a pimp. ....To have survived the Soho life and then to have moved on to become a loving wife and mother is truly the real story.I was relieved at the conclusion, although there is always sadness attached to these bios.....
light and easy read with memorable and compelling characters.
A window into a world that u'll never know ..... interesting insight into the life of 'working girls' in 1940's Soho.. memoir of two years the author spent working as a prostitute’s “maid”--housekeeper, companion, cashier, and errand girl-Barbara Tates portrayal of the characters who lived that life is both honest and real..... eye opening chapter to the life of sex workers of 1940's . how they have to deal with struggles day to day to make a living wither by choice or by orders of a pimp. ....To have survived the Soho life and then to have moved on to become a loving wife and mother is truly the real story.I was relieved at the conclusion, although there is always sadness attached to these bios.....
light and easy read with memorable and compelling characters.
August 11, 2011
A book variously described as a memoir, a biography and an autobiography, West End Girls details the lives of Soho prostitutes through the eyes of a virginal, innocent but forthright narrator (I have great empathy with the author, as I used a similar narrator in my novel, Breaking Faith, so my review could be a little biased; please bear that in mind).
Written with humour and displaying an extraordinary naivety mixed with a growing worldliness developed along the journey, this memoir is full of empathy for the girls and young women the author meets, befriends and serves. Set just after World War II, the atmosphere is remarkably evocative and brilliantly brought to life by Barbara’s candid observations. If you’re a man reading this, be warned: men do not come out well from this volume. The author’s view of the gender is clearly skewed by her exposure to those men who habitually resort to the services of prostitutes, so it is hardly surprising that she has a somewhat one-sided view of us. Only later in life did she meet and marry a man who was able to balance her view and, to give her credit, she clearly realised that her former attitude was rather biased.
I read this book with a growing sense of amazement at the peculiarities of the human condition and the sexual proclivities of both men and women. I’m no innocent; though my only exposure to prostitutes has been accidental contact: once whilst looking for a photography business in Southend and once whilst hitch-hiking through London. On neither occasion was I tempted to take up their offers of ‘comfort’. Barbara has introduced me to the idea of the prostitute’s ‘maid’, a sort of bodyguard-cum-accountant-cum-general dogsbody; something I had not previously encountered, even through fiction. She also talks of ‘ponces’, the Soho equivalent of the ‘pimp’, which in her era had a slightly different meaning.
Her accounts of her own life and those of the women of pleasure around her are warm, detailed and almost impartial. The descriptions of Soho, especially the underbelly where these women operate, are full of observations that bring the shoddy, shabby but superficially glamorous place to life. The author was a gifted artist and this shows through in her acute observations, her ability to paint a picture with words.
Her gradual loss of innocence, though she is never physically corrupted, permeates the account and allows her to provide more and more detail of actual events. However, she shows a distinctly personal view of what she can and cannot write for public consumption, so that her narrative is full of unanswered questions to which the reader suspects she has almost too any answers.
Given that this is story of the lives of people engaged in a sordid lifestyle for all sorts of reasons, it manages to rise above the murk and muck to provide a picture of a warm, generous and affectionate world, albeit peppered with violence, usage and abuse.
I am glad I read this, both as writer and reader, and have no hesitation in recommending it to all but those with insincere pretentions to sensitivity.
Written with humour and displaying an extraordinary naivety mixed with a growing worldliness developed along the journey, this memoir is full of empathy for the girls and young women the author meets, befriends and serves. Set just after World War II, the atmosphere is remarkably evocative and brilliantly brought to life by Barbara’s candid observations. If you’re a man reading this, be warned: men do not come out well from this volume. The author’s view of the gender is clearly skewed by her exposure to those men who habitually resort to the services of prostitutes, so it is hardly surprising that she has a somewhat one-sided view of us. Only later in life did she meet and marry a man who was able to balance her view and, to give her credit, she clearly realised that her former attitude was rather biased.
I read this book with a growing sense of amazement at the peculiarities of the human condition and the sexual proclivities of both men and women. I’m no innocent; though my only exposure to prostitutes has been accidental contact: once whilst looking for a photography business in Southend and once whilst hitch-hiking through London. On neither occasion was I tempted to take up their offers of ‘comfort’. Barbara has introduced me to the idea of the prostitute’s ‘maid’, a sort of bodyguard-cum-accountant-cum-general dogsbody; something I had not previously encountered, even through fiction. She also talks of ‘ponces’, the Soho equivalent of the ‘pimp’, which in her era had a slightly different meaning.
Her accounts of her own life and those of the women of pleasure around her are warm, detailed and almost impartial. The descriptions of Soho, especially the underbelly where these women operate, are full of observations that bring the shoddy, shabby but superficially glamorous place to life. The author was a gifted artist and this shows through in her acute observations, her ability to paint a picture with words.
Her gradual loss of innocence, though she is never physically corrupted, permeates the account and allows her to provide more and more detail of actual events. However, she shows a distinctly personal view of what she can and cannot write for public consumption, so that her narrative is full of unanswered questions to which the reader suspects she has almost too any answers.
Given that this is story of the lives of people engaged in a sordid lifestyle for all sorts of reasons, it manages to rise above the murk and muck to provide a picture of a warm, generous and affectionate world, albeit peppered with violence, usage and abuse.
I am glad I read this, both as writer and reader, and have no hesitation in recommending it to all but those with insincere pretentions to sensitivity.
Read
May 21, 2012This is a memoir of two years the author spent working as a prostitute’s “maid”--housekeeper, companion, cashier, and errand girl--in late 1940s Soho. Though the book holds interest in its unusual glimpse of postwar London, Tate shares frustratingly little of her own thoughts or feelings about this phase in her life. Afterward she became an artist and suburban wife and mother; in the Epilogue she writes, “I had a perfect marriage.” Well, good! And that’s about the level of insight you can expect.
October 17, 2011
Loved it! An insightful glimpse in to this fascinating world. So glad Barbara Tate captured it all and tragic that she never got to see the success which I am certain this book will achieve. I particularly liked how much fun these ladies had in an arguably dark and unforgiving world. A rollercoaster of emotions, a really great read.
July 24, 2011
A fascinating tale of working girls during the 40s in Soho. A very easy engaging read.
December 2, 2010
Quick and easy read. Next please!
November 5, 2011
I loved this book and couldn't put it down. Found the end quite haunting but am so glad I had the chance to read about some remarkable characters from a bygone era.
March 16, 2013
not sure what to put but i enjoyed but felt that it was boring at times.
August 16, 2019
Excellent! A window into a world that I'll never know. Keen insights, sympathetic characterizations and unsparing narration are offered with sincere warmth. Just wonderful.
June 1, 2020
Totally absorbing and revelatory memoir about the author's two-year stint working as a maid for the Queen of Soho – aka 1940s prostitute Mae. It's a remarkable glimpse at a lost Soho – grubby, still a residential neighbourhood with small businesses, seedy and with an air of criminality. Barbara Tate is a wide-eyed 21-year-old who has escaped a miserable childhood and has ambitions to be an artist, when she is invited by Mae to earn a lot of money as her companion, security guard and tea-maker. Mae is a charismatic force of nature and introduces young Babs to her twilight world of bondage devotees, cross-dressers, punters, Maltese ponces and sister prostitutes. Barbara would become a successful artist but reveals herself here to be a fantastic, empathetic writer. She is never seduced into joining the sisterhood, but is a witty, non-judgmental and loyal observer throughout. Her recollections of Mae's world are not for the faint-hearted, but, my goodness, it is hilarious, while ending on a tragic note. A brilliant and unforgettable read.
April 10, 2021
Didn't realise until the end that this was a true story, and that it nearly didn't get published. It tells of a fascinating friendship through incredible times. It was full of funny and tearjerking moments, and I had felt I knew the two main characters as though they were my friends too. Quite a powerful read.
January 13, 2025
Such wonderful insight to Soho in the 1940s. Wonderful character developments and felt like you were living it with them with the authors descriptions. Not my usual book to read but really enjoyed it!
March 4, 2013
The non-judgemental approach of the author, as she relates her time as an ingénue among the more worldly and artful of London's Soho, not long after World War II, is commendable for its openness and acceptance of human nature. However, I read this book as research, already knowing a good deal about the time and place—and had expected a more in-depth insight into the edgy world around her than Barbara Tate (or her editor) delivers.
Although there are snippets of detail the bigger picture of contextual history and aspects of social history that I thought would be present in this book are almost entirely missing. Eventually I realised that being closeted in the all-consuming life of prostitute's maid to Mae, certainly in terms of how many hours of the day it occupied and the limitations of its environment, perhaps meant that much of what in other circumstances would have been in an eye witness account of life in 1940s Soho, simply passed the author by. Or maybe the significance of some of what might have been in the original manuscript was lost in its editing, which would be a shame if so.
The other reason for this of course is that the subject of this recollection is essentially Mae.
'West End Girls' is easy enough to read, though not really edifying beyond the passive descriptions of the chaotic lifestyle that Barbara Tate was briefly part of. And, whilst the tale is told with honesty and affection the outcomes are hardly surprising.
Not quite what I expected: A human interest piece rather than the resource that I was hoping for.
Although there are snippets of detail the bigger picture of contextual history and aspects of social history that I thought would be present in this book are almost entirely missing. Eventually I realised that being closeted in the all-consuming life of prostitute's maid to Mae, certainly in terms of how many hours of the day it occupied and the limitations of its environment, perhaps meant that much of what in other circumstances would have been in an eye witness account of life in 1940s Soho, simply passed the author by. Or maybe the significance of some of what might have been in the original manuscript was lost in its editing, which would be a shame if so.
The other reason for this of course is that the subject of this recollection is essentially Mae.
'West End Girls' is easy enough to read, though not really edifying beyond the passive descriptions of the chaotic lifestyle that Barbara Tate was briefly part of. And, whilst the tale is told with honesty and affection the outcomes are hardly surprising.
Not quite what I expected: A human interest piece rather than the resource that I was hoping for.
January 23, 2019
Unexpected subject matter and very odd too, at times. However, as off-putting as it COULD have been the story line was actually informative, humorous, and not vulgar at all. Not that I would recommend or endorse the author's choices but she managed to keep her own morals while making a lot of money at a time she most needed it. The whole story is filled with paradoxes and moral dilemmas, the author's own inner compass having been broken by a severe lack of compassion and normal family feelings, her mother and grandmother in particular were obviously soul-less people.
August 2, 2012
An interesting insight into the life of 'working girls' in 1940's Soho. An autobiographical account of a naive young woman who gets drawn into the world working as a maid for a couple of years, before moving on to become a painter. Nicely written, it conveys a good sense of the camaraderie, harshness, backstabbing and vulnerability of the women.
February 4, 2014
about halfway through I decided that this was reading like a list of incidents. Perhaps that's how memoirs generally read, I couldn't say. But, I still wanted to see how it finished up and was satisfied with a well rounded ending.
Interesting subject matter, and the circumstances of the author give an unusual insight into the Soho of the 50's and with it's comparison to present day.
Interesting subject matter, and the circumstances of the author give an unusual insight into the Soho of the 50's and with it's comparison to present day.
July 19, 2022
Disturbing, yet fascinating. A memoir penned with heart but without judgment or emotional upheaval.
In parts, Tate sounds like a biographer, describing sickening incidents in a quiet, matter-of-fact manner. But the pictures she draws and the characters she introduces are vivid and alive, and they stay with you for days after you finish reading the book.
In parts, Tate sounds like a biographer, describing sickening incidents in a quiet, matter-of-fact manner. But the pictures she draws and the characters she introduces are vivid and alive, and they stay with you for days after you finish reading the book.
January 27, 2012
a true story by the author who was an artist but was caught up as a maid in Soho .
She is loyal to Mae and much revolves round the life of Mae and some of the other girls.
It took a while to get into and is not for the faint hearted.
She is loyal to Mae and much revolves round the life of Mae and some of the other girls.
It took a while to get into and is not for the faint hearted.
November 7, 2014
I found the lives of the prostitues of Soho in the 1940s fascinating. This was a book full of love but also full of passion and agression. I was relieved at the conclusion, although there is always sadness attached to these bios. I'd recommend it if you like reading real life stories with grit.
April 10, 2015
Interesting insight into 1940s London and the life of Soho prostitutes. Not sure how much the author whitewashed it but it seems surprisingly charming and her friend seems very happy as a hooker. I enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews