Gwen Sweetingham was born in Ilford in 1944 but traumatised at
five years old by her mother's death, her father's alcoholism, and the
arrival of a tyrannical stepmother to break up her family. ‘Seven
Sisters' tells the story of her mother's six sisters who would step in to
save their niece from neglect, cruelty and oblivion. These six diverse
East End women from London's Canning Town form the backbone of
Gwen's book, telling their vividly different stories of mentorship
from her schooldays, education and later her discoveries of love and
sex; her first-hand experiences of fashion in the 50s and ‘Swinging
Sixties' through to adulthood and marriage. Her book, affectionately
told, is a rich mix of personal memories and post-war social history.
But above all it is the triumphant story of a child's rise from rejection
and poverty to successful womanhood with the help of seven
women; all of them demonstrating girl-power long before the world
had thought up the phrase.