UEL English PEN Society Book Reviews

There has been a lot of word going around about The Sugar Girls book, so I thought I'd give it a read. It took a while for me to get glued to the story, but I enjoyed seeing London from a historical perspective, mostly due to the fact I have been living in that area myself and therefore knew most of the locations.

The book is set in 50's and 60's and focuses on the east part of London and the Tate & Lyle sugar factory - it's always educative to read the history of the products most of us probably have in our cupboards. The Sugar Girls, as the girls who worked at the factory were called, worked there for a lot of years and therefore formed strong bonds with other girls and Tate & Lyle became part of their life.

The Sugar Girls book focuses on four girls - Ethel, Lillian, Gladys and Joan. I really felt a strong connection with history whilst reading this (mainly because I'm a hippy and enjoy historical things a bit too much) and I could easily imagine myself living in that period of time. The only negative remark I have to point out about this book was the way it was written - one chapter focuses on one individual girl and goes from Ethel, Lillian, Gladys and Joan and reverts back to them in that same order. Although this way the reader still feels in touch with all the characters, I would prefer the writers to focus on one girl's story and then focus on the other one, as it was really hard to remember what happened to the characters once the writers reverted back to their stories.

The language used in the book is very appropriate for the time period and therefore takes you on a journey where The Sugar Girls worked hard and now share their stories with the rest of the world.  I would definitely recommend it as a read to people interested in this subject or in history in general as the writers definitely worked hard to create a realistic imagery of that time period.

A little fun (or not so fun) fact: Mary Flanagan was one of the sugar girls and her case is one of the oldest missing persons's case in history of London - she disappeared on New Year's Eve at the age of 16, waving her family goodbye as she was going to a Tate & Lyle party. Her family is still actively looking for her to this day.

Mandy