The tale of a Cheltenham lady - Elizabeth Gillard

A memoir charting a woman’s life, from her Cheltenham childhood and education in the fifties to the present day, interwoven with details of an impossibly difficult mother/daughter relationship which will intrigue the reader.Elizabeth Gillard had very mixed feelings about being sent to the prestigious Ladies’ College. She came from a humble home, devoid of the trappings of upper-class wealth and background – how would she cope with such a privileged and exclusive education?Having survived her schooling and induction into ‘being a lady’, largely through the influence of an exceedingly forceful mother, she was programmed by her to follow a career path deemed suitable. A succession of occupations followed, none of which really met her mother’s standards and expectations.Eventually, Elizabeth trained to become a State Registered Nurse at the Royal London Hospital. Life in London in the sixties is brought vividly to life, from Carnaby Street to the Beatles; from the harsh reality of the meths-swiggers in the East End, to the rolling of dustbin lids around Trafalgar Square on New Year's Eve.The manner in which the passage of time treats a small nuclear family, struggling to find its way in post-war Britain, is of both historical and social interest.