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Start giftingWest End Girls - Abridged
This audiobook uses AI narration.
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Learn moreNow a Top Ten bestseller. Barbara Tate was 17 when she heard the whispered word that would change her life: Soho. It would take four years for Barbara to escape her loveless home but when she finally made it to the forbidden streets of Soho - just as London was recovering from the trauma of the second world war - things would never be the same again.
There the naive Barbara meets the beautiful and capricious Mae. When she takes a job as Mae's maid, Barbara imagines she'll be housekeeping. But down a shabby backstreet, Barbara discovers the secret lives of Soho's working girls. An astonishing world full of fierce friendships and bitter rivalries, dangerous men and desperate measures, Barbara soon learns that taking the money from a staggering supply of punters and making copious amounts of tea are only the bare essentials. She will need to be nursemaid, protector and confidante to impossible, adorable, self-destructive Mae. The tumultuous and heartrending friendship at the heart of this spellbinding tale gives us a window on a people and a place almost lost to us. It's a true story of adventure, survival and growing up, told with experience, honesty and real heart.
Read by Kate O'Sullivan
(p) 2011 Orion Publishing Group
Barbara Tate was born in Southall in 1927. After she left her Soho life, Barbara went on to marry, raise a family and become a successful painter. A fellow of the Royal Society of Artists and the Society of Botanical Artists, Barbara was a long-time president of the Society of Women Artists and lifetime honorary president. Accolades for her paintings include gold and silver medals from the Paris Salon, the Grand Prix de la Cote d'Azur and an honorary professorship from Thames University. Barbara died in 2009.
Actress, impressionist and singer, Kate has worked on a sketch show for BBC3, supplied all female voices/impressions for both 2DTV and HEDZ and in the West End she has played Cecily Cardew in THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, Mistress Dainty in LUST and Magenta in THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW. She is also lead singer in The Rocky Horror Band. She has also narrated The Charmseekers and Railway Rabbits audio series for Orion.