Not all tarts are apple

In 1953, the dark alleyways of Soho, London, teem with crooks, fortunetellers, cardsharks, and ladies of the night. But even the toughest racketeer has a soft spot for Rosie, the adopted daughter of the whole neighborhood and resident ray of sunshine in the local café. A doorstop orphan, her world is filled with a menagerie of neighbors come to nosh and gossip. But as her Uncle Bert and pillowy-plump Aunt Maggie work to make Rosie's adoption legal, she learns that the woman she has always known as "The Perfumed Lady" is not only a professional tart, she's also a gin addict and Rosie's mum. As the real story unfolds and Rosie becomes the target of a plot, the neighborhood's response will delight readers and leave them hungry for the future titles in this charming new series, which "Maeve Binchy fans will enjoy" (Booklist).

Not All Tarts Are Apple

Literature & Fiction

Granger, Pip

Contemporary

Penguin??Books

Life is starting to look up in the London cafÃ© where Rosie lives with her beloved Aunt Maggie and Uncle Bert. It is 1954, rationing is over, and Roger BannisterÂ's four-minute mile is the pride of England. But the Widow Ginger couldnÂ't care less. An ex-GI with an ice-cold stare and fresh out of military prison, the Widow has come to settle some unfinished business with Bert. The WidowÂ's looking for his share of the profits from a wartime scamÂ—and a little vengeance for his years in the clink. Rosie soon learns that where thereÂ's smoke, thereÂ's fire, and it will take more than divine intervention to save the neighborhoodÂ—and RosieÂ's familyÂ—from the WidowÂ's vengence. 
 Charting the further misadventures of the characters from the acclaimed Not All Tarts Are Apple, Pip GrangerÂ's newest story of LondonÂ's underworld shows her storytelling at its best.

The Widow Ginger

Genre Fiction

It is 1954, the year Roger Bannister won the four-minute mile. Rosie, and her beloved Auntie Maggie are opening up their cafe in Old Compton Street for Uncle Bert's breakfast special when the Widow Ginger comes to call. The Widow Ginger, an ex-GI with ice-cold blue eyes, is especially scary. He has unfinished business with Uncle Bert - business that includes being cheated on his share of a 'liberated' lorry-load of guns and explosives during the War - and he intends to make sure he now gets paid in full. And this isn't all: the lovely Luigi appears to be suffering from a severe case of unrequited lust; Bert and the local Mafioso Maltese Joe have had an acrimonious falling-out; and, most worrying of all, Rosie's best friend Jenny has begun to keel over mysteriously in the school playground. With a cast of colourful characters with wonderful names like Sugar Plum Flaherty and Bandy Bunion, Soho streets so authentic you can lean out and touch them, and a story that will make you laugh and cry, The Widow Ginger is another heart-warming novel that will establish Pip as the queen of London saga-writers.

Transworld Publishers

No Peace for the Wicked

The fourth compelling story in Pip Granger’s acclaimed Soho series featuring nine-year-old Rosie and a fascinating cast of characters from 1950s Soho. Peace, a young Chinese girl, has run away from boarding school and come to live with Lizzy, a heart-warming new character destined for adventure and romance.From the Hardcover edition.

No Peace For The Wicked: The East-End is brought to life in this heart-warming Cockney saga

Humor & Satire

Transworld Digital

Bestselling author Pip Granger remembers her childhood in a vibrant part of London where working girls swung their keys on street corners and coffee bars throbbed to the beat of rock and roll.

Up West: Voices from the Streets of Post-War London

History

Europe

Corgi

Brave, funny and authentic, Alone is a heartbreaking memoir of growing up in 1950s London in a world of poverty, alcohol abuse, parental neglect — and the courage of a little girl to find her way through the trouble-filled maze.

Alone

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Trouble in Paradise

BANTAM PRESS

The fourth compelling story in Pip Granger’s acclaimed Soho series featuring nine-year-old Rosie and a fascinating cast of characters from 1950s Soho. Peace, a young Chinese girl, has run away from boarding school and come to live with Lizzy, a heart-warming new character destined for adventure and romance.

No Peace For the Wicked

Do you remember the West End of London during the 1950s? Did you live or work there? If so, I want to hear from you... This was the advertisement author Pip Granger placed in a local newspaper, and the response was immediate. Soon she was hearing from people who recalled when sweets were rationed; from families who'd been bombed out of their homes during the Blitz; from men who worked in the flower markets of Covent Garden; and from the son of a family who'd opened one of the very first delicatessens in Soho. All have extraordinary stories to tell. Based on these, and the author's own memories, Up West evokes a unique and vibrant community and a way of life that is vanishing fast.

Up West

Reference

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

Magna Large Print Books

A first novel serves up an inimitable slice of British life from Coronation Summer, 1953, in a city not much different than that familiar to Charles Dickens and Oliver Twist. Seven-year-old Rosie lives happily with Uncle Bert and pillow-plump Aunt Maggie above their cafe on Old Compton Street. The Soho neighborhood is rife with tough and sinewy London life including pimps and prostitutes, thieves and con men, the bent and the wicked. One day at school Rosie learns her real mum’s a tart. In fact, the Perfumed Lady is not only a tart, she’s addicted to gin—but what’s her real story? As Bert and Maggie bring in the clever nearby lawyer Sharkey Finn to draw up adoption papers, the motley group of grown-ups surrounding Rosie contribute in their own way to making the child safe from a truly surprising threat. Rosie is an entrancing narrator, sharing the cafe clientele’s matter-of-fact attitude towards crooks and crimes, not to mention the puzzling mystery of identity that unfolds so convincingly yet so innocently that time and place will blur as you turn the pages.

British & Irish

Poisoned Pen Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Granger, Pip. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Granger, Pip

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Granger, Pip. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Not All Tarts Are Apple

The Widow Ginger

The Widow Ginger

No Peace For The Wicked: The East-End is brought to life in this heart-warming Cockney saga

Up West: Voices from the Streets of Post-War London

Alone

Trouble in Paradise

No Peace For the Wicked

Up West

Not All Tarts Are Apple