Twopence to Cross the Mersey

Twopence to Cross the Mersey
Helen Forrester

This major best-selling memoir of a poverty-stricken childhood in Liverpool is one of the most harrowing but uplifting books you will ever read.When Helen Forrester’s father went bankrupt in 1930 she and her six siblings were forced into utmost poverty and slum surroundings in Depression-ridden Liverpool. The running of the household and the care of the younger children all fell on twelve-year-old Helen. With very little food or help from her feckless parents, Helen led a life of unrelenting drudgery and hardship.Writing about her experiences later in life, Helen Forrester shed light on an almost forgotten part of life in Britain. Written with good humour and a lack of self-pity, Forrester’s memoir of these grim days is as heart-warming as it is shocking.

HELEN FORRESTER

Twopence to Cross the Mersey

Copyright (#u89ca00d6-5177-599c-b11c-dc87a485b863)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

The News Building

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2012

This edition published by Harper 2016

Copyright © the estate of Jamunadevi Bhatia 1985

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

Cover photograph © Raymond Kleboe / Getty Images

HarperCollins has made every effort to find copyright holders and obtain permission for the use of copyright material in this book. If any material has been used without the owner’s permission please contact HarperCollins and we will give appropriate in future reprints or editions of this book.

Helen Forrester asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008180966

Ebook Edition © Dec 2016 ISBN: 9780007369324

Version: 2016-11-08

Dedication (#u89ca00d6-5177-599c-b11c-dc87a485b863)

To the Liverpool City Police

Table of Contents

Cover (#u207e298f-ddcc-5288-9de4-34fab5ff6ed2)

Title Page (#u090ddd6d-ffc4-578a-af47-723acb102811)

Copyright (#ua0e58875-ddc9-5f69-bcff-794c344f316b)

Dedication (#uc7c215c8-3273-56a2-8576-c3358cbaed7b)

Chapter One (#u6dec362d-dff6-5cfd-b048-940d559b7a0e)

Chapter Two (#u8fd65653-dca1-5b16-a7ba-4794f9d793ab)

Chapter Three (#u3b421456-230e-5510-a1da-454c229c4929)

Chapter Four (#ueb3e36c6-d123-59c9-8a39-73a64e9719fc)

Chapter Five (#u0732bd87-7d76-5423-87ff-686d546512fe)

Chapter Six (#u7ca2dd26-f0df-5f5c-a743-5e8bd163f4a1)

Chapter Seven (#ubd5ccca6-1239-5464-b9de-f74cd97ac3e0)

Chapter Eight (#ued2b62cd-9336-5b5f-a41b-9279339d652e)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)