General Chat

If you have time to spare and would like something to read. try this book The People of the Abyss by Jack London ( readable online )

http://books.google.com/books?id=4gTg6RtCcwQC&lpg=PP1&dq=Jack%20London&lr=&pg=PA25#v=onepage&q=&f=true


He goes undercover into the heart of the East End in the 19th century......What a powerful writer he is. You may think you have an inkling as to how the ancestors lived, but my goodness, this is such an eye opener.

Don't just bookmark this link......please read it, you will be pleased you did and will, I am sure, look at your own life and that of your descendants with more hope than the poor wretches of the East end. Not just one or two, but mostly all of them.


Another more recent book about the 'Worst Street in London' by Fiona Rule, is also a must if you had London ancestors. Lookup description on Amazon.co.uk

Thanks Susan
will do this later...when tennis finishes
Kay

I have been reading this and will do so again, just so it all sinks in. Mind boggling to say the least.

Gail

I was a bit peeved when I realised that there were only 32 pages viewable, so I have ordered a copy from Amazon.


I always wished I lived in the Victorian era but, after having read books of this kind, I don't think I would have survived unless of the gentry.

I have read novels set in these times, and around London area, and they are heartbreaking. I know they are fiction but most are well researched so the bones of the story are true to life. Knowing my luck, I know which sort of background I would have come from, the drag yourself up from your non existent bootstraps one, not the hoi polloi!

Lizx

so are you going to read it Liz? It won't take long and is well written.

Unlike the gobbledygook one I am reading at the moment. ( The London Underworld in the Victorian Period by Henry Mayhew and others ) It is not that I don't understand it...just that it is a bit heavier reading and may take more time to read and digest.

Hi Susan,

just read the first few pages, and it looks interesting, will have a look later and read the rest, nearly time for bed now!

Take care
Lizxx

I have just received the following book

The People of the Abyss, only to find that it is completely free online and downloadable on another website.

http://www.1stworldpublishing.com/ebooks/e1-4218-1471-4.pdf

Aha....this is the one you mentioned then!

Thanks

x

It is Sue.

Am laid up with rotten flu.....will get the other book to you when in the world of the living.

Here is the link for

Booths online Archive

http://booth.lse.ac.uk/


The Charles Booth Online Archive is a searchable resource giving access to archive material from the Booth collections of the Archives Division of the Library of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE Archives) and the Senate House Library.

The Booth collection at LSE Archives contains the original records from Booth's survey into life and labour in London, dating from 1886 to 1903. The archives of the Senate House Library contain Booth family papers from 1799 to 1967.

* Introduction and guides to the archives
* Poverty maps of London: Browse or Search
* Purchase the Poverty Maps of London
* Inquiry into life and labour in London
Search the catalogue of original survey notebooks
Browse the digitised police notebooks
Browse the Stepney Union casebooks and Jewish notebooks
Booth family papers