Skinny Lizzie [antikvár]

Chapter One 1932, London 'Aw, come on, Mum, if we don't get a move on we'11 be late for the concert.' 'Oh, do shut up and stop fidgeting. It's no good us going out this early.' Ten-year-old Lizzie Collins, thin as a whippet and just as quick, shook her long fair hair and accepted her mother's scolding with goodwill and cheerful-ness. All the week she was able to take life as it came, but this was Saturday and Saturday evenings were different. They were the highlight of her life. The Collins family lived in a typical back street in south-west London. Aunt Daisy took on the role of head of the family because each day her mother would be up early and off to her job at the Dawsons. Lizzie hated the Dawsons. They always seemed to come first with her mother. Half a crown a morning they paid her mum, and for that she did every menial task asked of her, even down to scrubbing the doorsteps. Even Christmas morning was the same. Ever since Lizzie could remember, she and her younger brother Syd had walked to Balham with their mother. Down the back area steps they would troop