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Our Mam
Sometimes it is the very simplicity of the tale which makes the reading worthwhile, and this is such a case.
Jean Cooper's Mam, Violet May Coulton, lived to be 100 years of age and the story spanning those years from 1905 to 2006 is told here via memories and photographs. She was one of seven children and the challenges she faced, along with so many women of her generation, would seem extraordinary to most younger women in Britain today. Life was often hard and cruel, with true poverty and little love.
At the age of twelve Violet went to work during the First World War. Then followed several different jobs including being a scullery maid at Egerton Lodge, Melton Mowbray, where very many years later she would return as an esteemed guest, finally able to see what was upstairs! This in itself shows how considerably times changed during one lifetime. Nevertheless, all those years of poverty and hard work at a young age, then the Depression and no work and living through two world wars, never truly dampened the spirit of this indomitable woman.
The stories remembered in this book by the author and her two sisters, Audrey and Nancy, reflect the history of one life which itself reflects the history of Britain over those hundred years, and they will be an inspiration to all who read them.
ISBN: 9781852001315
Size: 217x140mm
Binding: hardback
Length: 80pp
Photos: 58
About the author:
Jean Cooper
The author was born in Burton-on-Trent and left school at the age of 14 to work for Woolworths. She was a manageress at RHM Foods in Wimbush for 26 years.
She decided to write about her mother when she discovered how much people liked to hear the stories she would tell them, and in this she has been helped by Audrey and Nancy, her two sisters, who also had many memories about their mother.
Jean Cooper has travelled abroad in many different countries and has also been a choral and light music singer for many years.
