A perfectly feel-good comic saga from the East End

Not All Tarts Are Apple

Hugely appealing London saga, set in the Soho of the 1950s.

A wonderfully warm and charming London saga, set in the Soho of the 1950s. If you like Donna Douglas and Nancy Revell, you'll love this! 
 
"She brings the East End to life..." - Barbara Windsor 
"A poignant story with a strong authentic backdrop..."-Woman &amp; Home 
"I enjoyed this book so much and would recommend it to anyone..." -- ***** Reader review 
"Great fun to read, amusing..." -- ***** Reader review 
 
******************************** 
 
WINNER OF THE HARRY BOWLING PRIZE FOR FICTION. 
 
WHAT IF EVERYTHING YOU KNEW COULD BE TAKEN FROM YOU IN A FLASH? 
 
Rosie has always lived with her eagle-eyed Auntie Maggie and Uncle Bert in their café in Soho, often visited by her mother - the mysterious, and often drunk, Perfumed Lady. Yet, her mother's family - landed gentry who hail from a country estate near Bath - are desperate to get their hands on Sophie and will stop at nothing - even kidnap- to get her... 
 
Will Rosie have to leave the Soho and the neighbours she knows and loves - Great Aunt Dodie, Madame Zelda and Paulette, Sharky, Maltese Joe and the Campini Family who run the delicatessen in Old Compton Street - for good? 
 
Rosie's story continues in The Widow Ginger.

'A poignant story with a strong authentic backdrop.'

'A wonderfully warm debut novel told with humour, charm and compassion ... I loved it, as will anyone who enjoys reading a good story, delightfully told.'

'A truly lovely and well told story.'

'An absolute delight. Without doubt, the most wonderful book you'll read this year.' 
&nbsp;

Christina Jones, author of Nothing to Lose

'A warm-hearted debut novel guaranteed to please.'

'A delightfully fresh and original novel with an unexpected sinister streak.'

Maureen Lee, winner of the RNA 2000 Romantic No

'This warm first novel set in working-class Soho in the Fifties explores an adult world through a child's eyes ... The author spent her childhood in Soho which perhaps explains the convincing period detail.'

Part of Pip Granger's early childhood was spent in the back seat of a light aircraft as her father smuggled brandy, tobacco and books across the English Channel to be sold in 1950s Soho, where she lived above the Two Is Café in Old Compton Street. She travelled in Europe and Asia in the 1960s and '70s, and worked as a Special Needs teacher in Hackney in the 1980s, before quitting teaching to pursue her long-cherished ambition to write. She now lives in the West Country with her husband and pets. 
 
Pip Granger's novels, Not All Tarts Are Apple, which won the Harry Bowling Prize for fiction, The Widow Ginger, and Trouble in Paradise are all available as Corgi paperbacks.

Voices from the Streets of Post-War London

Up West

In the bestselling tradition of Call the Midwife and Shadows of the Workhouse, true stories from London in the 1950s.

London's West End has always been bestselling author Pip Granger's spiritual home. While still a baby, she and her father would haunt Soho's bars, café's, and bookshops. When he moved to Old Compton Street, she and her family lived above the 2I's Café, which allowed her to experience this cosmopolitan community as an insider. She is the author of four novels, all set in Soho. Her autobiography, Alone, was a Sunday Times bestseller,

Do you remember the West End of London during the 1950s? Did you live or work there? If so, I want to hear from you ... 
 
This was the advertisement author Pip Granger placed in a local newspaper, and the response was immediate. Soon she was hearing from people who recalled what it was like when sweets were rationed; from families who'd been bombed out of their homes during the Blitz; from men who'd worked in the flower markets of Covent Garden; and from the son of a family of immigrants who'd opened one of the very first delicatessens in Soho. All had extraordinary stories to tell. 
 
Based on the author's own memories and dozens of interviews and written testimonies, Up West evokes a unique and vibrant community, and a way of life that is vanishing fast.

Alone

A classic misery memoir of growing up in 1950's London in a world of poverty, prostitutes and abusive alcoholic parents.

A wonderfully warm debut novel told with humour, charm and compassion ... I loved it, as will anyone who enjoys reading a good story, delightfully told

Gilda O'Neil, for NOT ALL TARTS ARE APPLE

A poignant story with a strong authentic backdrop

Granger is unique in popular fiction in that she is able to tie in a fictional family saga with the big social changes going on in post war London

What’s On in London for NO PEACE FOR THE WICKED

Part of Pip Granger's early childhood was spent in the back seat of a light aircraft as her father smuggled brandy, tobacco and books across the English Channel to be sold in 1950s Soho, where she lived above the Two Is Café in Old Compton Street. 
 
She worked as a Special Needs teacher in Hackney in the 1980s, before quitting teaching to pursue her long cherished ambition to write. She now lives in Somerset with her husband.

The only daughter of alcoholic parents, novelist Pip Granger spent much of her childhood outside looking in. 
 
No strangers to the demon booze, her parents were deeply involved in a passionate relationship that rose to exciting highs and plunged to terrible and often frightening lows. Drink explained the series of crises, the furious rows and life-threatening accidents Pip had to contend with, and it also explained why her home life was so very different from that of most other people she knew. Just after her first birthday her family was evicted from their cottage in Sussex for non-payment of rent - a pattern that was to recur throughout her childhood. Home became a place best avoided, and soon Pip was spending time with her ne'er-do-well father in cafes, snooker-halls and other low dives in London's Soho where she made a series of lasting friendships with the unlikeliest of people. 
 
Brave, funny, original and totally authentic, Alone is a heartbreaking book about alcohol abuse, parental neglect, and the courage of a little girl to find her own way through a trouble-filled world.

The East-End is brought to life in this heart-warming Cockney saga

No Peace For The Wicked

The fourth in Pip Granger's acclaimed Soho series of novels featuring nine-year-old Rosie - and Lizzy, a heart-warming new character destined for adventure and romance.

Perfect for fans of Donna Douglas and Nancy Revell, a feel-good, uplifting and funny saga set in post war London from Sunday Times bestseller Pip Granger. 
 
"A colourful, deeply nostalgic evocation of Soho in the Fifties, drawing heavily on the author's own childhood." -- CHOICE 
 
"She brings the East End to life" -- BARBARA WINDSOR 
 
"Lovely book - enjoyed it immensely. Very funny and very accurate of London in the 1950s." -- ***** Reader review 
 
"A brilliant, amusing, unputdownable book." -- ***** Reader review 
 
********************************************** 
 
THE WAR MAY BE LONG OVER BUT LIFE IN SOHO IS ANYTHING BUT CALM... 
 
1956: Lizzy is working in Soho when Peace, the daughter of her employer Bandy Bunion's estranged sister, comes to stay. Peace is a beautiful sixteen-year-old part-Chinese girl who has run away from boarding school and who has no intention of going back. 
 
Having lost her own daughter - Rosie's best friend - to leukaemia two years previously, she feels a special bond with Peace. 
 
She also feels that life has been rather quiet recently; but things are about to change dramatically... 
 
When Peace goes missing a second time, and no one knows where she's gone, it looks as though there's only one thing to do. Lizzy asks TC - her new man and a policeman - to help her find Peace, and the first place they must visit is the dock area in Limehouse... 
 
No Peace for the Wicked paints a picture of 1950s Soho so authentic you feel as though you are there...

Part of Pip Granger's early childhood was spent in the back seat of a light aircraft as her father smuggled brandy, tobacco and books across the English Channel to be sold in 1950s Soho, where she lived above the Two Is Cafe in Old Compton Street.She travelled in Europe and Asia in the 1960s and '70s, and worked as a Special Needs teacher in Hackney in the 1980s, before quitting teaching to pursue her long-cherished ambition to write. She now lives in the West Country with her husband and pets. 
 
Pip Granger first novel, Not All Tarts Are Apple, won the Harry Bowling Prize for fiction. Not All Tarts Are Apple, The Widow Ginger, Trouble in Paradise and No Peace for the Wicked (all of which feature the same cast of characters from 1950s Soho) are available as Corgi paperbacks.

A heart-warming and upliftingly funny saga from the East End

The Widow Ginger

Written with all of Pip Granger's warmth, humour, compassion and 1950's authenticity, a second 'Rosie' novel, and a follow-up to Not All Tarts Are Apple.

Perfect for fans of Donna Douglas and Nancy Revell, a feel-good, colourful and comic saga set in post war London from Sunday Times bestseller Pip Granger. 
 
"Packed with sharp authentic detail, this tale told through a child's eyes brings to life a colourful world of great characters from a bygone age." -- HOME &amp; COUNTRY 
"Loved this book. Could not put it down, read it in two sittings..." -- ***** Reader review 
"I enjoyed every minute of it and was sad when I finished it..." -- ***** Reader review 
 
*********************************** 
ALL WAS CALM AND NORMAL...UNTIL A STRANGER CAME INTO TOWN... 
 
1954, Soho, London. Rosie, and her beloved Auntie Maggie are opening up their café in Old Compton Street for Uncle Bert's breakfast special when the Widow Ginger comes to call. 
 
The Widow Ginger, an ex-GI with ice-cold blue eyes, is especially scary. He has unfinished business with Uncle Bert- business that includes being cheated on his share of a 'liberated' lorry-load of guns and explosives during the War - and he intends to make sure he now gets paid in full. 
 
And this isn't all: the lovely Luigi appears to be suffering from a severe case of unrequited lust; Bert and the local Mafioso Maltese Joe have had an acrimonious falling-out; and, most worrying of all, Rosie's best friend Jenny has begun to keel over mysteriously in the school playground.... 
 
The Widow Ginger continues Rosie's story (started in Not All Tarts Are Apples) and paints a picture of 1950s Soho so authentic you feel as though you are there...

'Packed with sharp authentic detail, this tale told through a child's eyes brings to life a colourful world of great characters from a bygone age.'

'A carnival atmosphere that's tinged with a little sadness.'

'Celebrates the colourful characters and atmosphere of 1950s Soho, where this queen of London saga-writers grew up.'

'A colourful, deeply nostalgic evocation of Soho in the Fifties, drawing heavily on the author's own childhood.'

Pip Granger

Highly evocative of a time, a place, a people, and a changing way of life in London at the end of World War II, this is a satisfying, compelling novel.

Writing from the heart, Granger is unique in popular fiction in that she is able to tie in a fictional family saga with the big social changes going on in post war London.It's also a great Tube read, that takes you on a nostalgic journey back to a lost cockney paradise that never was.

Heart-warming East End story, brimming with lively characters and the issues and problems affecting a London community in 1945.

A fantastically funny and feel-good tale from the East End…

Perfect for fans of Donna Douglas and Nancy Revell, a heart-warming saga set in post war London from Sunday Times bestselling author Pip Granger. 
 
"She brings the East End to life..." - Barbara Windsor 
"Read it straight through..." - ***** Reader review. 
"Love her writing." - ***** Reader review. 
 
*************************** 
 
1945: The end of the war spreads joy through London, but for Zelda Fluck the news isn't all good. The end to hostilities will bring her violent husband Charlie home. It also sets off a chain of events that brings more strife and destruction to the people of Paradise Gardens in Hackney than did the Blitz. 
 
 That's not all. Zelda's nephew, Tony, is hanging around Brian Hole, a one-boy crime wave and only child of Ma Hole, leader of the local spivs. 
 
 But Tony can sing - he has, in fact, the voice of an angel - and Zelda's friend, Zinnia knows a voice coach in Soho whose lessons may be able to straighten Tony out. 
 
The people Zelda meets there change her life. Will she find a way out of Hackney and her failed marriage? 
 
Trouble in Paradise is a prequel to Pip Granger's Rosie novels...

Pip Granger

Praise for Trouble In Paradise

Highly evocative of a time, a place, a people, and a changing way of life in London at the end of World War II, this is a satisfying, compelling novel.

Writing from the heart, Granger is unique in popular fiction in that she is able to tie in a fictional family saga with the big social changes going on in post war London.It's also a great Tube read, that takes you ...

Heart-warming East End story, brimming with lively characters and the issues and problems affecting a London community in 1945.

Highly evocative of a time, a place, a people, and a changing way of life in London at the end of World War II, this is a satisfying, compelling novel.

Writing from the heart, Granger is unique in popular fiction in that she is able to tie in a fictional family saga with the big social changes going on in post war London.It's also a great Tube read, that takes you ...

Heart-warming East End story, brimming with lively characters and the issues and problems affecting a London community in 1945.

Highly evocative of a time, a place, a people, and a changing way of life in London at the end of World War II, this is a satisfying, compelling novel.

Writing from the heart, Granger is unique in popular fiction in that she is able to tie in a fictional family saga with the big social changes going on in post war London.It's also a great Tube read, that takes you ...

Heart-warming East End story, brimming with lively characters and the issues and problems affecting a London community in 1945.

Books by Pip Granger

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter