Been reading one of my Xmas presents, called "Southwards from Swiss Cottage". It's written by a woman called Beatrice Curtis Brown who was born at the turn of the last century, just down the road from where I was born and now live in North London.
She describes how the Finchely Road had, in the 19th century, been lined with fragrant lilac trees. Its fragrance these days is mainly of diesel from the buses that thunder up and down it all day (which I must admit are very convenient, transport-wise).
Although I love reading about my area, the book actually gets more interesting after Brown grows up and moves to Chelsea.
After leaving school, Brown gets a job assisting the families of American servicemen living in England. Apparently in the First World War, many US Servicemen came to the UK. They either found relatives who already lived here, or married English women but then had to return home alone, sometimes leaving children behind no doubt. After the war ended, it was Brown's job to look in to the affairs of these American's families.
Brown describes visiting one woman who had married an American serviceman in the war. He had returned to the US and was now sending for her to join him. The woman, who lived in a deprived area of London called Balham (now home to the yuppy and yummy mummy), was obviously desperate not to go, and had missed several ships to the US already.
"Mary Louise lay in a bed in a vey untidy, though heavily furnished bedroom. I told her she must get up and go to America. Mary Louise said, rather, vaguely, that she didn't think she could to-day"
Eventually, after wiping aside Mary Louise's and her mother's protestations, Brown practically forced this woman to pack, and then escorted her to the train to take her to the port. At the station Mary Louise missed her train and donated her five shillings safety money (given to her by Brown) to a charity collecting for railways orphans.
Brown persuaded her on to the next train, but she arrived at the port just as the ship was sailing. She did however make it to the US a month later, but returned within a year, accompanied by some other women who were in similar situations.
