review by Ro Bennett on show sept 22nd 2011
This was a very interesting and informative book about growing up in a Glasgow slum.
Here is the Product Description
Glasgow in the 1950s was a deprived and often violent place. Meg Henderson was part of a large family, and when the tenement block in which they lived collapsed they had to move to the notorious Blackhill district where religious sectarianism and gang warfare were part of daily life. Yet despite appalling conditions, there was warmth, laughter and a remarkable spirit, and Meg’s mother and her Aunt Peggy, both idealistic and emotional women, shielded her from the effects of her father’s heavy drinking.
A hopeless romantic, Peggy searched for a husband until late in life and then endured a harsh, unhappy marriage. When she died horrifically in childbirth her death devastated the family and destroyed Meg’s childhood. Only later, after the death of her own mother, was Meg able to discover the shocking facts behind the tragedy.
It all sounds pretty grim and the author does describe growing up as part of a large and often troubled family, the squalid conditions and poverty very vividly. The harsh repercussions of alcoholism, ignorance, and illiteracy on the development of children and family life generally are shockingly portrayed. The book also reveals the prevalent bigotry, social inadequacies, sectarianism and lack of justice of the time. So it’s not always a comfortable read - but then you find yourself laughing out loud at humorous incidents the author has included. Also, the fact that Meg Henderson managed to overcome such deprivation and countless obstacles to live such a successful life gives the book a feel good factor.
The one criticism I have of the book is that it ends with Meg suffering unrequited love for Rab and flying off with the VSO to India. Then comes the epilogue in which she is married, to a Rab, with a child. So what happened in India? Is she married to the Rab of the unrequited love? How did their relationship develop? I feel a huge, interesting chunk has been left out.
About the author: Meg Henderson was born in Glasgow in 1948, the youngest of three children. When she was 11 her aunt Peggy died aged just 27 during childbirth, and Finding Peggy, her first book was born out of her research into her family history.
Meg Henderson gratefully left her convent secondary school at 16, having had to care for her family ever since the death of Peggy; her mother being unable to cope with the loss and her alcoholic father being generally feckless, and useless as a husband, father or provider. She first worked for the NHS where she became a Senior Technician, then travelled to India with the Voluntary Service Overseas. When she returned to Scotland she married, went to live on a Scottish island and became an adoptive and foster parent. She now lives with her husband, three children and three cats on the East Coast of Scotland, and works as a journalist writing for newspapers and television.
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