Never Look Back

Travel Guide

A story from the flower gardens of Covent garden where Matilda works in poverty and her move to America via New York and San Francisco to work and try to survive as best she can.
Poverty and the struggle of women must have been  a hard situation to bear and through Matilda’s eyes we see  how such dire poverty afflicted many at the time at every point along the way of her journey.

The poor were ill, starving, neglected and hidden by society and its shameful to read about how bad conditions really were. the lack of hygiene and sanitation was especially bad and not surprisingly the mortality rate was very high. The gap between rich and poor was shocking –

“They were either whipping their slaves to death, auctioning off the slaves’ children or throwing great lavish parties and balls that went off for days.”

Reaching America was really like going on an historical booktrail as we travelled from New York to San Francisco. Some of the places good to research further are the Ellis island immigrant museum and the Emigrant Trail museum in California. The journey these people took to search for wealth in the gold rush is an amazing story indeed.

“If the Southern states are ever going to join the Union they will have to agree to abolish slavery. But I can’t see then doing that and I can only see it ending in civil war.”

The American civil war is the main setting which affects each and every one of the characters –

“War was hideous in its distortion and cruelty yet it threw up the best and bravest of emotions”