Just an East End Boy

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The East End of London has a fascinating history. Often it has been violent and lawless throwing up criminals like Jack the Ripper and the Krays. It has always been a place where migrants from foreign lands have settled thus it has a diverse and vibrant culture which is a characteristic it retains and therefore can be said to be a constant. The brief period described in this memoir runs from 1945 to 1963 and is concerned with the author's childhood in Stratford - today a central place in an East End which extends from The City out to Romford. The book explores the culture and morals of the time through the life of the author and his family, friends and acquaintances. East End kids then were inventive and adventurous and their street life was full of exciting activities which these days would sometimes astonish and, indeed, would not be possible. Above all the author attempts to capture the sense of community and belonging that those East End streets engendered. Moreover, it conveys a sense of nostalgia and loss for a time which was precious, fleeting and now gone forever as the technological world made its impact, sweeping away a social context which, hitherto, had prevailed for centuries. The author added 'Just' to the title to covey two thoughts - that he is simply an East End boy and that he is now only tenuously an East End boy.