Kathleen Dayus

Kathleen Dayus, author, was born in 1903 in Hockley, Birmingham, 1-2 miles NW of the city centre. The living conditions she experienced were back to back slum dwellings with hand to mouth existence, but in a close knit and supportive community. Visit Birmingham Back to Backs for some sense of what the housing stock was like.

She described her growing up, married life, parenthood including her decision to hand her children to Doctor Barnardo's for a period, and later life in a series of books:

*Her People: Memories of an Edwardian Childhood (1982),
*Where There's Life (1985),
*All my Days (1988),
*The Best of Times (1991),
*The Ghosts of Yesteryear (2000)

These were recently brought together under the title: The Girl from Hockley.She was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by University of Birmingham in 1992 in recognition of her contribution to the written record of Birmingham's history. In Aug 2006 her work was featured daily, read by Diana Bishop and abridged by Julian Wilkinson, as Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4.

Bibliography

*Dayus, Kathleen. Her People: Memories of an Edwardian Childhood (1982)
*Dayus, Kathleen. Where There's Life (1985)
*Dayus, Kathleen. All my Days (1988)
*Dayus, Kathleen. The Best of Times (1991)
*Dayus, Kathleen. The Ghosts of Yesteryear (2000)

*Dayus, Kathleen (Virago). The Girl from Hockley: Growing Up in Working-Class Birmingham (2006)

External References

* [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yer#Pronoun Sample of Kathleen Dayus' language]
* [http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=406002&y=287309&z=1&sv=camden+drive&st=6&tl=Camden+Drive,+Birmingham,+B_1&searchp=newsearch.srf&mapp=newmap.srf Camden Drive, Kathleen Dayus' early home]
* [http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/Authors/D/1106 Notes and photo]
* [http://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3426 Birmingham History Forum blog on Kathleen Dayus]
* [http://www.tv.com/kathleen-dayus/person/599604/summary.html Interview on Pebble Mill at One, BBC1, April 1992]