This is a book that will hold the reader's attention from start to finish. It's a story of courage, determination, control, anger, jealousy, and love. Alma, the main protagonist, was injured during the Blitz in East London when half her house fell on top of the air-raid shelter also killing her father and her sister. That experience coloured the rest of her life.
Alma and the family moved to Poplar ('Call the Midwife' country) in 1947. By 1951, they'd been re-housed to a Council House in Grundy Street where they stayed until 1981. East end life was important to them, but Alma always had aspirations to move back to Hornchurch in Essex and the surrounding areas where most of her family lived. George, Alma's husband, was born and bred in Poplar in the East End - a true Cockney. His attitude was, 'I'll leave the East End feet first!' However, his daughter Linda's medical needs meant that she could no longer climb the stairs after major back surgery. So they had to move and Alma's ambition was realised, but little did they know that Linda would eventually meet and fall in love with Ralph, and that despite her disabilities, she would get married and achieve great things with her husband.