Coin Street Chronicles

About the Book

In January 1929, in a grimy, working-class neighborhood on the south bank of the Thames, Eileen Gwynneth Yvonne Redfern was born. From her inauspicious beginning as the unwelcome third occupant of Old Ma Tanner’s one-room apartment on Coin Street to an eighteen-year-old on the brink of university life, author Gwen Southgate weaves a fascinating story of a vanished time and a way of life on London’s old south bank.

In this memoir, telling tales of the 1930s and 1940s, Gwen provides a glimpse into a broader tapestry portraying the sweep of life in Britain as seen through the eyes of a young girl. Among its many colorful and lively characters are the big-hearted, chain-smoking Aunt-mum; yarn-spinning, practical joker Grampa Benson; and Gwen’s feisty, much-married mother. After a wartime evacuation from London opens wider horizons, Gwen shares how she managed to survive in a world where the mere stealing of a spoonful of rice pudding could lead to dire consequences and even the enjoyment of a Sunday walk was condemned as sinful.

Coin Street Chronicles paints a vivid and captivating portrait of Britain and her people before, during, and after World War II.

About the Author

Gwen Southgate retired from childhood many years ago. Since then, she tended the needs of a husband, four children, ten grandchildren, innumerable pets, and droves of high school students. She now lives with her husband near Princeton, New Jersey, where she enjoys doing many things she never had time to do.