Episode 1

Written by by Michele Hanson.
Read by Rebecca Front.

Metroland : the neat lawns and large houses of Ruislip were the canvas for Michele's childhood, and food was the main preoccupation of her mother who was convinced that her Christian neighbours had no concept of how to feed a child.

The genteel suburbia of Northwest London in the 1950s is the setting for this memoir of an only child whose Jewish mother had loudly held opinions on everything from the stinginess of her neighbours to the bowel movements of her entire family. Negotiating adolescence was never going to be easy.

Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.