Book description
This is Lilian's story, one of four stories from The Sugar Girls.
During the Blitz and the years of rationing, the Sugar Girls kept
Britain sweet. The work was back-breakingly hard, but the Tate &
Lyle factory was more than just a workplace - it was a community, a
calling, a place of love and support and an uproarious, tribal part of
East London.
'When Lilian Tull came to Tate & Lyle shortly after the end of
the war, she was older than most new arrivals. A lanky, fairhaired
woman of 23, she worked in the can-making department, where the Golden
Syrup tins were assembled. Lilian had arrived on the job with a heavy
heart, and her colleagues noticed a sad, far-away look in her eyes.'
In the years leading up to and after the Second World War thousands
of women left school at fourteen to work in the bustling factories of
London's East End. Despite long hours, hard and often hazardous work,
factory life afforded exciting opportunities for independence,
friendship and romance. Of all the factories that lined the docks, it
was at Tate and Lyle's where you could earn the most generous wages
and enjoy the best social life, and it was here where The Sugar Girls worked.
This is an evocative, moving story of hunger, hardship and happiness,
providing a moving insight into a lost way of life, as well as a
timeless testament to the experience of being young and female.
Includes Lilian's own personal photographs of life as a sugar girl.
Duncan Barrett studied English at Cambridge and now works as writer
and editor, specialising in biography and memoir. He most recently
edited The Reluctant Tommy (Macmillan, 2010) a First World War memoir.
Nuala Calvi also studied English and has been a journalist for eight
years with a strong interest in community history pieces. She took part
in the Streatham Stories project to document the lives and memories of
people in South London. They live in South London.
