The girl from Hockley - Kathleen Dayus

As read on BBC Radio 4...Born into the industrial slums of Birmingham in 1903, Kathleen Dayus vividly recalls her Edwardian childhood and her life as a young munitions worker during the war, marriage and life below the poverty line in the 1920s. Early widowhood and the Depression forced her to relinquish her children to Dr Barnardo's homes until, eight long years later, she could afford to have them back with her again. Her autobiography shows her extraordinary memory for the sights, sounds and smells of her youth, her marvellous sense of the comic and her spirited refusal to do anything but live life to the full.