I received a free electronic copy of this historical novel from Netgalley, the estate of Marguerite Steen and Endeavour Press Ltd in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

This novel was originally published in 1932 by The Camelot Press Ltd, London and Southampton. This edition was published in 2017 by the Odyssey Press, an imprint of Endeavour Press Ltd.

Ms. Steen wrote her prose with a paintbrush. All of her endeavors are works of art. The Wise and Foolish Virgins fits quite well in this company. This novel is set in a northern seaport in 1930’s England, and follows the life of young Catherine Malley, in her early teens and the fourth child of a brood of 11 illegitimate children born of an alcoholic mother. Elder Sister Susan is a prostitute, Brother Alfred is a crook – and not an accomplished one – and sixteen year old Edith is married to a Chinese laundry man, a match not considered acceptable by the mores of the time. Catherine is ’mother’ to her seven younger siblings, and she has attended all the schooling she, as an indigent child, is entitled to. Several of Catherine’s teachers feel she should be offered more schooling – that she is of the nature and intelligence to become a productive member of society and without that extra schooling she will be lost to the slums. Those making the decisions on Catherine’s future, however, do not see it handled.

This novel broke my heart. I would recommend to anyone who loves a grand tale.

Catherine Malley, a delicate schoolgirl from an impoverished family of questionable repute, seeks solace in her studies, her daydreams and the cherished weekly privilege of cleaning Miss Gatty’s kitchen. Miss Gatty, the long-standing disciplinarian and bully of Orange Street School, quick to pass judgement and to dismiss the potential, or indeed human worth, of any ‘slum’ child that comes under her rule. However Miss Gatty, is Catherine Malley’s idol and object of complete devotion, around which Catherine’s world revolves unnoticed and unappreciated.
’Mrs Malley’, drunk, penniless and promiscuous; mother to eleven illegitimate children, including Catherine, all living in one room, visited by a long succession of ‘father figures’, each of them posing a risk to the young brood. Catherine, almost a teenager, mourns the loss of two sisters to prostitution and a brother to prison, and assumes the role of primary carer for the little ones when she’s not at school or cleaning at Miss Gatty’s.
A well written descriptive book. Set in the 1930’s it highlights a school bully, not a pupil but a teacher & Catherine leaving school & coping with living hand to mouth & looking after her younger siblings. Not a light hearted read but certainly portrayed a picture of living & surviving in the slums. I found it to be a good but not riveting read, too descriptive & down to earth for that. So not a frivolous bedtime read. The characters are really well portrayed & I really felt for Catherine.

I didn't finish this. The writing style didn't work for me.