Bowling, Harry

(British, 1931–99)

Harry Bowling was born in Bermondsey, London, and before turning to fiction worked as a lorry driver, milkman, and community worker. He wrote popular Cockney sagas, brimming with atmospheric detail and a warm sense of humour. Gaslight in Page Street (1991) is set at the turn of the twentieth century and concerns the relationships between two families, the Tanners and the Galloways. George Galloway owns a successful carriage business, and William Tanner is his right-hand man. Carrie Tanner, his daughter, is the heroine, and her story continues in The Girl from Cotton Lane (1992), which includes many entertaining vignettes of London life. The Glory and the Shame (1997) is about the impact of the blitz on an area of Bermondsey.

Maisie Mosco, Helen Forrester.

See FAMILY SAGA  SA