compiled by Sue McAlpine, Tempus, 2000, £9.99

This is a book of memories of life in this area – the Ealing and Hounslow of the title relate to the whole boroughs not just to the town centres. The stories and comments have been selected from many hours of tapes recorded by Gunnersbury Park Museum and the Questors Theatre in Ealing. They are set down in the speakers’ own words so that the past is brought vividly to life with an immediacy and sometimes humour or pathos. The book is illustrated with many old photographs of the people and events being described. The memories are grouped in chapters dealing with childhood and schooldays, including Hogarth School and the boat children’s school on a barge in Brentford, memories of working at Cherry Blossom, Brentford Market, in local laundries and on the boats on the canal, also wartime and leisure time memories including shopping at Goodbans and shows at the Chiswick Empire. There is an immense variety of recollections from all sorts of people, giving insights into life in this area from the First World War up to the 1970s.

Carolyn Hammond

Brentford and Chiswick Local History Journal 10 (2001)