Margaret Treherne

63 Kenyon Street Margaret Treherne

Based on the real life stories of a working class woman of incredible courage, '63 Kenyon Street' gives you a whirlwind family legacy from the lush pastures of rural Northern Ireland to the swing of life experienced by Birmingham girls in the early twentieth century. Dealing with an abusive husband and clashes of conscience with her faith in God, the spirit of Kitty Leddy shines forth from the page. Born into a large working class Catholic family in Northern Ireland, the formative years Kitty spends in industrial Belfast and the triumphs and tragedies she witnesses there make her determined to make something of herself. Along with her sister Maggie and best friend Annie, she takes a ferry across the Irish Sea to seek her fortune in England, where she becomes one of many Birmingham girls lost in the crowd and trying to make an independent living. For a while everything seems golden, until one day her sister disappears from their shared flat and the only one around to comfort her is Harold, but once married, he quickly turns from ardent suitor to abusive husband, leaving Kitty nowhere to hide until he is conscripted into the army. Left alone to raise her single daughter in the midst of the Birmingham Blitz, Kitty must draw on the strength of her faith in God and on the friends she meets along the way. But when Harold returns, what will become of the life she has made for herself? A series of real life stories spanning three generations of a family legacy, this biography provides a fascinating insight into the lives of ordinary people in industrial cities, as well as the role of chance and change in the lines of fate.