The Sugar Girls
Tales of Hardship, Love and Happiness in Tate & Lyle’s East End
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The Sugar Girls
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Narrated by:
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Penny McDonald
About this listen
Tales of Hardship, Love and Happiness in Tate & Lyle’s East End Factories. The Sugar Girls went straight to No.10 in the Sunday Times Bestseller List, spending five weeks in the top ten.
‘On an autumn day in 1944, Ethel Alleyne walked the short distance from her house to Tate & Lyle’s refinery on the shining curve of the Thames. Looking up at the giant gates, Ethel felt like she had been preparing for this moment all her life. She smoothed down her frizzy hair, scraped a bit of dirt off the corner of her shoe and strode through.
She was quite unprepared for the sight that met her eyes …’
In the years leading up to and after the Second World War thousands of women left school at fourteen to work in the bustling factories of London’s East End. Despite long hours, hard and often hazardous work, factory life afforded exciting opportunities for independence, friendship and romance. Of all the factories that lined the docks, it was at Tate & Lyle’s where you could earn the most generous wages and enjoy the best social life, and it was here where The Sugar Girls worked.
Through the Blitz and on through the years of rationing The Sugar Girls kept Britain sweet. The work was back-breakingly hard, but Tate & Lyle was more than just a factory, it was a community, a calling, a place of love and support and an uproarious, tribal part of the East End. From young Ethel to love-worn Lillian, irrepressible Gladys to Miss Smith who tries to keep a workforce of flirtatious young men and women on the straight and narrow, this is an evocative, moving story of hunger, hardship and happiness.
Tales of adversity, resilience and youthful high spirits are woven together to provide a moving insight into a lost way of life, as well as a timeless testament to the experience of being young and female.
©2012 Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
An authoritative and highly readable work of social history which brings vividly to life a fascinating part of East End life before it is lost forever.’ Melanie McGrath
‘Delightful, a terrific piece of nonfiction storytelling, and an authoritative and highly readable work of social history which brings vividly to life a fascinating part of East End life before it is lost forever.’ – Melanie McGrath, bestselling author of Silvertown and Hopping
‘This vivid and richly readable account of women’s lives in and around the Tate & Lyle East London works in the Forties and Fifties is written as popular social history, played for entertainment. If it doesn’t become a TV series to rival Call The Midwife, I’ll take my tea with ten sugars.’ Bel Mooney, Daily Mail
What listeners say about The Sugar Girls
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kitty Kat
- 16-06-16
Authentic and true to life escapism
The Sugar Girls transports you, while listening, to what is now a forgotten world. Lots of little incidents from the factory floor and from the 'sugar girls' lives outside the factory pepper this real life account. It is sometimes touching, at other times leaning towards the mind boggling, sometimes colourful and at other times almost bland; making this a true mix of story and facts. The stories of different girls all intertwine and the book flits from girl to girl and back again, making it a challenge to always remember who was who; so at the end I'm left with a vague impression of the whole, as individual characters merge. Although it's a good bit of escapism and has an authentic feel of true life stories, from the past. My only small gripe is that the narrator has a sing song voice making it hard to get into, in spite of this I persevered until I did and made it to the end!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- chris
- 05-09-19
nostalgic
enjoyable nostalgia makes for pleasant listening. easy to get back in the storyline after a break.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Mrs Hill
- 24-11-22
Good start rubbish ending
The narrator was awful. How can a posh person read a story about the East End of London. My family came from the Abbey Arms, and both my mum and grandad and my aunty worked in Tate and Lyle. The book began well telling the history of the area and the people who lived and worked there. By the end it was just one wedding after another, one baby after another. I struggled to get to the end. I even increased the speed, so it finished quicker. Some of the stories seemed a bit sugary too. I wasn't even sure whether the prologue was real or just written to sound that way. A real disappointment.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Karen Stokes
- 07-03-24
How things have changed for women
Good to hear of the old east end of London and how things have changed around women’s employment
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jane Bryder
- 14-08-18
Beautiful story audio.
Fantastic story.. Totally enjoyed it. I recommend this book to be read and listen too by all ages. Well done to the author of this wonderful story. The performance was beautifully clear all the way through the story. Thank you.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jacquie hicks
- 17-04-23
Little confusing
Story was good then jumped from person to person got lost a few times but a good listen .
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