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The Sugar Girls: Tales Of Hardship, Love And Happiness In Tate & Lyle’s East End (2012)

by Duncan Barrett(Favorite Author)

3.79 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0007448473 (ISBN13: 9780007448470)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Harper

review 1: A book about the women who worked at the huge Tate and Lyle sugar factories in Silvertown London, about their experiences and antics at work, their home backgrounds and their love lives, ending with a epilogue of how these spirited young women look back on their lives as elderly ladies. What I found tricky was the jumping from one person's story to another, without any reference to dates! A map is provided, a timeline would have been useful! One thing that struck me throughout was that, apart from less description of how the company operated and of the social conditions locally, it was very similar in style to "The Sweethearts" about the girls working for Rowntrees in York. In fact the opening passage was almost identical - a young girl just out of school approaching the f... moreactory gates to get a job! A little investigation followed - different authors, but same publisher and a shared editor! So clearly a winner formula has been found and could well be applied now to other iconic brands - that could become very repetitive!
review 2: Really liked this book - the characters and their stories are endearing, touching and strong. It's getting a little tricky to remember who's who now - I think they should have stuck to a chapter per person rather than revisiting the characters on rotation, but it's still a really great mix of character study and historical reference.Is this why our communities have gone, killed with the death of companies like Tate & Lyle? Pay the Highest pay, have your own sports teams, run days out, private medical ON SITE! Minimal recruitment costs and churn. The way of the future? less

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