Poplar Memories is a vivid impression of Cockney London before and during the Second World War, set in a teeming, rundown docklands neighbourhood famous for being, well, one end of the Blackwall Tunnel. John Hectors spellbinding account of his early life in the 1920s and 30s conjures up a vanished era when simplicity and happiness went hand-in-hand. Halcyon days of talking pictures and pavement buskers, Saturday night knees-ups round the piano, eel and pie stalls, chimneysweeps, boxers, Clarnicos toffees and Lloyd Loom furniture, and a little shop called Woolworths selling nothing over sixpence unless its a shilling. All this was to disappear forever in the horrors of the Blitz. The author was disabled by infantile paralysis yet he became School Captain and embarked on a successful career at 14, surviving extreme poverty, panel doctors, dockers riots and Hitlers Luftwaffe with an unshakeable belief in the ordinary people of Poplar. Much has been written about the East End but if I was writing about Poplar in the early 1920s I would need John Hectors books. Dorothy (Dolly) Scannell author of Mother Knew Best.John Hector is a fine writer. His vast knowledge of the years before the last war is very nostalgic and beautifully written. Being of the same age and hailing from the same area, I can vouch for his accuracy. Reg Varney, comedian, actor and author.
