Author Description

The thin, two-storied house, neglected for years, stood straight on to the pavement. The battered front door was always ajar, the dark interior suggested a kind of urban rabbit hole. Here, in the early 1920s, the seven members of the Naylor family lived in one first-floor room. Rose, known as Rosie, was the fourth child to survive, the pet of her elder sisters until the arrival of Joey brought a new baby into this astonishingly devoted family. Her father's lofty attitude to employment in the lean years between the wars left the bread-winning to her mother. It was she who provided the six shillings for the rent and the bare necessities for survival, by working as a char. The ingenuity and efforts of the children played a vital part in their hand-to-mouth existence, but there was also fun and adventure for them in their own world - the vivid life of the streets. Here they raced their home-made carts and scooters, pinched road blocks, and played with fag-cards and marbles. And although school echoed to the chants of tables learned by rote, there were also dedicated teachers with books and pictures, crayons and music, to widen the horizons of their urban classes. Rosa Gamble describes her world in Chelsea between the wars with great affection, and recalls with remarkable accuracy the delights and despairs of childhood. Her brief vignettes, broadcast on Radio 4 Woman's Hour, created tremendous interest and listeners clamoured for more. Chelsea Child, now a Woman's Hour serial, will win her many more friends and admirers. From a series of books from the Woman's Hour serials.