Edie's Tale is the personal memoir of an ordinary working-class woman who grew up in the back streets of Darlaston between the wars. Through Edie's clear and vivid text we are transported back to an era when conditions in the back-to-back houses were - by today's standards - primitive; when poverty and hardship were the norm. Factories all around belched out clouds of black smoke, and soot on everything was accepted without question: this truly was the Black Country.Although times were tough, there are more cheerful memories recorded here: games and pastimes (flying home-made kites and fishing in the canal, for example), and the high days and holidays that everyone anticipated for months - such as the arrival of Pat Collins' Fair during Wakes Week, carnivals and Bonfire Night. There are also wonderfully captured cameos of local characters, including Alice the Milk and Billy Muggins (with his 'Bostin Bargains').Illustrated with approximately 50 family photos and 25 images of between-the-wars Darlaston, Edie's Tale captures the spirit of a long-ago era, and for younger readers will be a reminder of how much life and the Black Country have changed over the last eighty-plus years.