Hearts and Farthings
By Beryl Kingston
LONDON IN THE 1890s . . . a foggy city bustling with activity and bubbling with Cockney repartee.
To this alien world comes Alberto Pelucci, an early immigrant from distant Italy, dreaming of adventure and romance. Adventure enough is the verminous room of his first night’s stay in London, but romance seems more rewarding when the shy Alice accepts his hand. Only on their wedding night does he realise that his bride will never share his passion for physical pleasures.
And so when Alberto meets Queenie Dawson – exuberant, sensuous star of the music halls – his ordered new life is flung into turmoil . . .
Hearts and Farthings: the heart-warming saga of a man torn between two women, and of children born in the last, bittersweet days before the war that should have ended all wars.
Beryl Kingston was born and brought up in Tooting, the setting she recreates so vividly in Hearts and Farthings. After taking her degree at London University, she taught English and Drama at various London schools, as well as taking some time away from teaching to bring up her three children. She now lives in Sussex with her husband.
