Trouble In Paradise
A fantastically funny and feel-good tale from the East End…
-
- $8.99
Publisher Description
Perfect for fans of Donna Douglas and Nancy Revell, a heart-warming saga set in post war London from Sunday Times bestselling author Pip Granger.
"She brings the East End to life..." - Barbara Windsor
"Read it straight through..." - ***** Reader review.
"Love her writing." - ***** Reader review.
***************************
1945: The end of the war spreads joy through London, but for Zelda Fluck the news isn't all good. The end to hostilities will bring her violent husband Charlie home. It also sets off a chain of events that brings more strife and destruction to the people of Paradise Gardens in Hackney than did the Blitz.
That's not all. Zelda's nephew, Tony, is hanging around Brian Hole, a one-boy crime wave and only child of Ma Hole, leader of the local spivs.
But Tony can sing - he has, in fact, the voice of an angel - and Zelda's friend, Zinnia knows a voice coach in Soho whose lessons may be able to straighten Tony out.
The people Zelda meets there change her life. Will she find a way out of Hackney and her failed marriage?
Trouble in Paradise is a prequel to Pip Granger's Rosie novels...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This warm prequel to Agatha-finalist Granger's Not All Tarts Are Apple and The Widow Ginger follows the post-WWII adventures of Zelda Fluck and her neighbors in Paradise Gardens, a section of Hackney in London's East End. Peace has just broken out and the blitzkrieg has ceased, but Zelda and her large working-class family are confronted with food shortages, bombed-out buildings and the camaraderie and scheming that hard times bring. "Ma" Hole and her son are engaged in their customary crime spree. Someone is stealing petrol. And Zinnia Makepeace, the mysterious healer, is being threatened, her house burgled and cats stolen. Worst of all, Charlie, Zelda's abusive husband, is due home from the army. Readers won't find a major crime in these pages, but they will find a wealth of vivid, likable characters in a fully realized world that casts a bewitching spell. And Granger gets the atmosphere of 1940s London just right, down to the fish-paste sandwiches and the seamed "nylon" stockings women drew onto their legs. Gradually, Zelda forges a life beyond the restrictions of Paradise Gardens, moving to bohemian Soho, where her talented nephew Tony takes voice lessons. This charming and enticing novel stops just shy of becoming too sentimental: it's a kind of time machine to what London life could or should have been.
