Wild Child
by
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...she didn't really like being totally on her own and after a while she called out for Edith wondering where on earth she was. She went down the yard
to see if she was in the lavi. Paddling along the brickpath in her bare feet she called out,
"Edie, you in there? Edieee." she shouted at the top of her voice.
When there was no answer she started to cry. Mrs Wilkins peered over the wall,
"'Ere! What's all the shouting about?"
"I can't find our Edie," said a tearful Kathy who was still clutching her doll.
"She's probably just gone out for a while. She'll be back later. Was there something you wanted?" asked granny Wilkins.
"I can't do my hair or fasten me shoe laces," she sobbed.
Granny Wilkins disappeared and reappeared through the back gate.
"Come on then," she said. "You can be easily sorted."
Mrs Wilkins could understand why Edith had left home, but she didn't agree with it. She didn't think it right no matter what the problems were. Another
couple of years and Kathy would have been in school and they could have coped better. Mrs. Wilkins tied Kathy's thick black hair back into a ponytail
and she put her shoes on and tied them up for her.
"'Ave you 'ad your breakfast love?" asked Granny Wilkins, feeling sorry for Kathy because...
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About the Book
'Wild Child' is set between the wars in Clewer newtown Windsor, and follows the life of Albert and his baby daughter Kathy. Albert had been shocked to learn that at the age of fifty one he was to become a father again for the fifth time, but when Kathy was born he and his wife Emily considered the birth of a healthy baby girl a blessing.
But life dealt Albert a cruel hand when his wife died suddenly, leaving him to bring up a nine month old baby, while struggling to work a twelve hour day six days a week. At first his many relatives promised they would help, but it soon became clear that they could not be relied upon. When Albert discovered Kathy was being left on her own he realised he had wallowed in his own grief for too long and he vowed to do something about it. He did the only thing he could think of and that was to bring Edith, his eldest daughter, out of service to look after her sister.
Edith, still only seventeen years old, had been in service since she was fourteen. She had already forged a new life for herself with the emphasis on fun. She loved to go out dancing with her friend every night. She was distraught when her father came for her, this was something she had been dreading since her mother died. Edie loved her life she didn't want to look after a baby, let alone her three brothers and her father.
It quickly became apparent that only Edith's life had changed dramatically, the others all carried on as before, she was expected to take over her mother's role, cooking, washing and caring for them. It all got too much for her and feeling full of resentment she left home following a blazing row with her dad.
Kathy was only three years old...
'Wild Child' is the true story of my own mother's early years, modified from all the tales she told me and the parts of her story that she wrote down.
About the Author
Everyone has a story to tell, some more interesting than others. My own life is pretty uneventful. I still live in the town where I was born. After leaving school I spent the next thirty something years nursing at the local hospital and raising a family, but when I retired I then had the time to do something I have always loved - to write. One day listening to my mother describe her childhood in the 1920's I knew I had my topic for a book. To combine my love of yesteryear with my mother's stories of life with no electricity, no gas, and no mother, made me realise life today is so easy compared to the austerity of the early part of the last centtury. I am lucky to live in Cumbria, in the North of England,close to the Lake District, the largest National Park in England. The town I was brought up in has always been and still is quite isolated, apart from the railway, there is only one road leading to Barow-in-Furness. All the more remarkable that my mother, a southerner, ended up spending the rest of her life in Barrow.