In vivid and witty detail, this charming book describes everyday life in the town and surrounding fens seen through the eyes of a young girl. The story covers the aftermath of the First World War and the 1920s, and brings a long-gone era sharply back into focus.

Kathleen writes about the neighbours, children's games, fights with her little sister, her soft-hearted father's reluctant tellings-off, visits to The Pictures for tuppence, excursions to the local drains and rivers, trips "Down Below", schooldays (complete with liberty bodices, serge frocks and pinafores for the girls), the thrills of Empire Day, Sunday School treats and the Fair, learning to swim in the gender-segregated Corporation baths and wobbling her way to cycling prowess.

She describes junior meetings of the Sons of Temperance, her time in the Girl Guides, digging and delving on her father's allotment, the visiting anglers from Sheffield, Christmas rituals, and a stay with relations in Manchester when her father could find no work in Boston.

When she was 19, Kathleen moved to Stamford, where she met her husband. She is remembered with affection by generations of students to whom she taught shorthand and typing at evening classes. In her retirement she penned these beautifully-written memoirs, which will be read with nostalgic pleasure by her contemporaries - and with great interest by those who love local and social history.

Kathleen was a serious child who absorbed everything going on around her. She excelled at English and swimming. At 19 she left home to become secretary to an architect in Barn Hill, Stamford, opposite a solicitor's office. One of the young clerks there, Frederick Lord, became her husband. After qualifying to teach shorthand and typewriting, she trained several generations of students at evening classes. These memoirs were written when she retired in the 1970s.

Following a stroke many years ago Kath lost the power of speech and lived with her daughter in Market Deeping. After her heart condition worsened soon after her birthday in April 2005 and following a number of weeks in hospital, she died aged 91, in July 2005.

Her father, Albert Hall, worked in the building trade, and with mother Annie and younger sister Lavinia, lived in a claustrophobic two-up and two-down terrace house. They shared a cold water tap in the front garden of the house next door. The two-seater privy, complete with fly-papers, at the bottom of the garden was where Kathleen took refuge to read her comics in peace, and the setting for her mother's mortifying experience with the 'dillyman'.

She writes in vivid and witty detail about neighbours, children's games, visits to The Pictures, trips 'Down Below' (by boat to the New Cut mouth of the Witham), the perils of learning to ride a bicycle, going to school in liberty bodice, serge frock and pinafore, swimming in the gender-segregated Corporation Baths, Empire Day, Sunday School outing to Skegness, father's allotment, junior meetings of the Sons of Temperance, the May Fair and Christmas rituals. This is much more than nostalgia; it is an important record of local and social history, and well written. We should be glad that she decided to have it published. Kathleen is remembered by many students whom she taught shorthand and typing. She lives with her daughter in Market Deeping.
David Robinson, "Poachings" column, Lincolnshire Life, July 2004 p.3

This story, written thirty years ago, has proved well worth reprinting (Publisher's Note: This is not a reprint; it is the first time the book has been published.) The author was born just at the beginning of the Great War and the address in the title hides a house in Freiston Lane, Boston. She has a good gift of recall and her memories are full of telling details of a life-style that to the younger modem reader seems unbelievable. Even near to a big town the lack of modem amenities is quickly apparent - so many things that we take for granted now were just not available to the working families of eighty years ago. In spite of these seeming 'defects' this is the story of a life full of happiness in small things and home-made amusements, unaffected and far from today's emphasis on ready entertainment and consumerism. I enjoyed it and recommend it.
Book Reviewer, Lincolnshire Past & Present No. 60, 2005 p.28
Magazine of the Society for Lincolnshire History & Archaeology