Bessie Quinn was an early 20th century New Woman, a mother living her love story in the enchanted world of the Garden City. When she died in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-19, her shattered husband abandoned her memory, belongings and life history. Her disappearance reverberated down generations. Starting with only an Arts and Crafts kettle, one photo and a linen smock, Ursula has restored her grandmother to life. After long searches she found Bessie in the Scottish Borders, eighth child of working-class Irish parents who'd fled hunger after the Great Famine of the 1840s. This biography of a poor family unearths hard journeys of love, luck and loss, weaving historical fact with memory and imagination into a compelling story.

About the Author
Ursula Howard's working life in adult literacy and community publishing showed her how learning, determination and the power of writing can change lives. Names, voices and life stories replace silences and assumptions about the lives and culture of others. At the Institute of Education in London (UCL) Ursula was Director of an international literacy research centre. Building on a Sussex University DPhil, her book Literacy and the Practice of Writing in the 19thCentury: a Strange Blossoming of Spirit, (2012) was well received and widely cited. She has an honorary doctorate from Wolverhampton University. Ursula grew up in Manchester, and has been preoccupied ever since by social history and its relevance to the present. She is a great-granddaughter of Ebenezer Howard, the son of a London pastry-cook who became the visionary founder of the Garden City movement. This new book links his astonishing achievement to the life stories of poor Irish immigrants in 19th-century Scotland - the forgotten Quinn family, one of whom defied the odds and found her own life.


Book Information
ISBN 9781914151330
Author Ursula Howard
Format Paperback
Imprint The Endless Bookcase
Publisher The Endless Bookcase