The Cockney Girl

In the name of love…

For Burton Street’s Fairleigh family, the annual migration from Poplar to the hop-fields of Kent is the highlight of the year, a longed-for escape from the dust and grime of East London. 

As Rose Fairleigh and her pretty daughter Jess pack up to leave, Rose’s anticipation of the coming weeks is marred by worries that their departure will interrupt the slow-blossoming romance between Jess and the gentle postman Jack Barnes — and that her three unruly teenage boys will take advantage of her absence and get up to all kinds of trouble.

But reliable Jack Barnes, whom Rose has brought up almost as her own, promises to visit the Fairleigh women as soon as he can and assures Rose he will keep an eye on her sons. Reassured, Rose and Jess, and their neighbours, leave for Kent.

Despite tension between the Kent locals and the Cockney visitors, the hop-picking proceeds as always. 

But back in London, ignoring Rose and Jack’s warnings, one of the Fairleigh boys, Charlie, has been visiting Limehouse’s Chinatown, full of pimps, opium dens, and illegal gambling. 

What’s more, he’s found employment as a henchman to the shadowy Mr Chen. Jack realises that, duty bound by his promise to Rose, he must brave Chinatown’s dangerous and unfamiliar streets to find the boy.

Yet such action could result in tragedy for the Fairleigh family, as Charlie finds himself pulled further into the darkness of London’s back streets…

Meanwhile in Kent, full of promises and charm, the landowner’s son turns his attentions towards Jess. Robert Worlington is handsome — but he has no compunction about using a woman, only to abandon her just as swiftly.

Jess’s sweet nature and innocence are no match for his wily ways and when Jack fails to turn up in Kent as promised, the outcome seems inevitable…

‘[Gives a] voice to memories of a changing East End’ – The Guardian 

'A shocking book which, for once, should dispel the myth that life in the East End was one long knees-up' – Daily Express 

'O'Neill chronicles the filth and poverty with leery aplomb, then sobers things up with sharp social commentary' – The Scotsman

Gilda O’Neill (1951-2010) took three university degrees and was awarded an honorary doctorate for her work on the East End. In 1990 O’Neill began writing full-time. She published thirteen novels and six works of non-fiction. She also broadcasted, gave talks and wrote articles about east London history. She tragically died in 2010 from a sudden illness.