One End Street

‘The Family from One End Street’ by Eve Garnett was one of my favourite books as a child. I vividly remember my class sitting outside in the shade (it always seemed to be sunny in this class!) as our teacher, Mrs Carter, read it to us. She wore a rubber thimble which she used to turn the pages and we would all hold our breath, wondering whether it would be used for just a little more story or whether it would be time to go back inside.

Published in 1937, the stories were already dated, but there was not the wealth of choice in children’s books that there is now. However, nothing could spoil the stories about Mr and Mrs Ruggles and their seven children. Their adventures and mishaps seemed real- I would never be able to sail to my family’s own island and have adventures there, but I frequently got into the sort of day to day scrapes the Ruggles children encountered. I might never have ruined a green artificial silk petticoat whilst trying to help out, but my best intentions often led to similar personal catastrophes. I saved my pocket money so I could buy not only ‘The Family from One End Street’, but also the sequels ‘Further Adventures of the Family from One End Street’ and ‘Holiday at the Dew Drop Inn’.

Number One, One End Street is located in the fictional town of Otwell-on-the-Ouse, a name which was ‘misleading, as many a visitor, lured from London in the summer…had discovered.’ Otwell was based on Lewes in Sussex where Eve Garnett lived at 12, Keere Street (pictured below), a steeply sloping street where there is a plaque on the house to commemorate this fact. Not only did she write these stories, but she illustrated them too, basing One End Street on Sun Street (pictured above), also in Lewes.

‘The Family From One End Street’ is Eve Garnett’s best known work and won the second ever Carnegie Medal in 1937. Initially rejected by a number of publishers as being not suitable for the young, the book features a large, happy working class family at a time when most books for children were about middle class families. Mr Ruggles is a dustman and his wife, a washerwoman and each chapter is focused on one of the children and their antics. One year at the Hay Festival, I attended a session to celebrate a Puffin birthday and an author was asked to speak about their favourite book from each decade of the company’s history. Jacqueline Wilson chose ‘The Family from One End Street’, saying, ‘It was as if The Family From One End Street had given me permission to write about ordinary urban children in an honest, natural way.’

One of the many joys of these stories is that you feel you come to know each and every one of this close-knit, happy family, who have very little, but are always there for each other no matter what. Apparently some critics called the stories patronising, but I fail to see this. Charmingly illustrated and charmingly written, these are gentle family stories for all to enjoy and I, for one, love them!

The Family From One End Street ISBN: 978-0141355504

Further Adventures of the Family from One End Street ISBN: 978-0241355855

The Holiday at Dew Drop Inn ISBN: 978-0241355879