The Widow Ginger
A heart-warming and upliftingly funny saga from the East End
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Perfect for fans of Donna Douglas and Nancy Revell, a feel-good, colourful and comic saga set in post war London from Sunday Times bestseller Pip Granger.
"Packed with sharp authentic detail, this tale told through a child's eyes brings to life a colourful world of great characters from a bygone age." -- HOME & COUNTRY
"Loved this book. Could not put it down, read it in two sittings..." -- ***** Reader review
"I enjoyed every minute of it and was sad when I finished it..." -- ***** Reader review
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ALL WAS CALM AND NORMAL...UNTIL A STRANGER CAME INTO TOWN...
1954, Soho, London. Rosie, and her beloved Auntie Maggie are opening up their café in Old Compton Street for Uncle Bert's breakfast special when the Widow Ginger comes to call.
The Widow Ginger, an ex-GI with ice-cold blue eyes, is especially scary. He has unfinished business with Uncle Bert- business that includes being cheated on his share of a 'liberated' lorry-load of guns and explosives during the War - and he intends to make sure he now gets paid in full.
And this isn't all: the lovely Luigi appears to be suffering from a severe case of unrequited lust; Bert and the local Mafioso Maltese Joe have had an acrimonious falling-out; and, most worrying of all, Rosie's best friend Jenny has begun to keel over mysteriously in the school playground....
The Widow Ginger continues Rosie's story (started in Not All Tarts Are Apples) and paints a picture of 1950s Soho so authentic you feel as though you are there...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Granger's follow-up to Agatha nominee Not All Tarts Are Apple (2002), young Rosa Featherby resumes her innocent and charming reminiscences of 1950s London. Rosie is happy with her adoptive parents, Auntie Maggie and Uncle Bert, at their quiet cafe in Soho, surrounded by a lively cast of adoring adults. But dark clouds soon begin to gather. An old wartime crony of Uncle Bert's, an ex-GI known as the Widow Ginger, is nosing around in menacing fashion, and Uncle Bert is now at odds with longtime pal Maltese Joe. Though she doesn't fully understand why, Rosie knows it's not good for Uncle Bert and Maltese Joe to be on the outs, and everyone is nervous about the presence of the Widow Ginger. Threatening incidents occur, and even Rosie can feel the tension. Despite the muted suspense, readers will warm to this unsentimental portrait of postwar London and the eccentrically lovable denizens of Rosie's Soho.
Customer Reviews
The Widow Ginger
This confirmed Anglophile is delighted to find someone, writing with wit and charm, of a lesser known section of London and the inhabitants that make it unique. I loved this book.