The Stepney Doorstop Society by Kate Thompson

The Stepney Doorstep Society is a heartfelt and entertaining celebration of strong, intelligent, working-class women who took on not only poverty, but also Hitler’s Third Reich, in a never-ending struggle to care for their families and support their community.

A Boomer friend of mine, born a few years after WW2 ended, spent his childhood playing on London bomb sites and has the scars to prove it. I know the district this book is about and in the past I met many elderly people who had been through the kind of experiences described. While I was reading it, I wondered if I might have encountered some of the old ladies who shared their memories with Kate Thompson, because their voices came across as genuine and familiar.

I love the format where each woman shares hints and recipes that have helped her throughout her long life, then tells the reader about the amazing East End matriarchs who controlled and supported their families and neighbours through the worst of hard times. This is one of the most honest books I have ever read, because it celebrates wonderful, brave women who were not in the public eye, who would have been forgotten if this book had not been written.

The Stepney Doorstep Society is published by Hodder and Stoughton.