Why a Booktrail?
1920s, 1930s: The follow-up to The Dressmaker’s Daughter
The Factory Girl
What you need to know before your trail
Henzey Kite is a factory girl so she can’t believe it when Billy Watts walks into her life. He’s not the kind of boy she would imagine going for someone like her. He’s not like the other boys she knows. He’s strong, charming and wildly ambitious – he won’t settle for anything less than the wealth of high society.
But with wealth comes sacrifice. All Henzey wishes for is a home and a family, while Billy has his sights set at the top.
When the Great Depression destroys the Black Country, their love crumbles with it. The dark core of Billy’s obsession for success is revealed, while poor Henzey’s young heart is shattered.
How will she overcome such heartache…and who will help her?
Locations
Reset- England - The Black Country
- A: Dudley - Market Place
- B: Dudley - Cromwell Street
- C: Dudley - Union Street
- D: Dudley - Flood Street
Travel Guide
Welcome to the Black Country
The author note in the book states that Nancy Carson is a keen student of local history and if this book doesn’t educate and show you the city as it was in 1920s between the two world wars, then nothing will. The detail from the dates girls go on, the boys they talk about and the work they are forced to do, is very evocative of another time and place.
Dudley is at the heart of the Black Country and the centre of the Great Depression with the mining community and the industries such as factories whose workers suffered the most. The housing conditions are grim throughout the city and girls are forced to work in awful factories with backbreaking work for hardly any money at all. The conditions here are shocking and the conditions at home scarcely any better:
Bessie’s house for example is “ only a little back-to back in Flood Street, and you know what a slum it is down there. Damp as the Dudley Tunnel, it was, and overrun with vermin”
This was the industrial heartland of England and this the story of those who lived and breathed its damp and sooty air.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Factory Girl
Author/ Guide: Nancy Carson Destination: The Black Country Departure Time: 1920s
Back to ResultsWhere Next?
