Battle of Cable Street
Elsie witnesses the rise of antisemitic fascism in 1930s London in this gripping historical drama from award-winning author Tanya Landman.
Life has always been tough on the streets of Stepney, where Elsie and her brother Mikey are growing up in a vermin-infested slum nicknamed “Paradise”.
But the rise of antisemitic fascist Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts in the 1930s stirs up trouble between families who have lived closely together for years, and Elsie sees friendships torn apart.
When Elsie and Mikey attend a Mosley rally, intending to heckle and cause trouble, they soon see how dangerous the situation has become, but out in the streets the fascists find that people will stand and fight against them and against hatred in what becomes the dramatic Battle of Cable Street.
Particularly suitable for readers aged 13+ with a reading age of 8.
Tanya Landman is renowned for her thought-provoking, prize-winning novels including the beautifully “deft and dark”, Carnegie Medal-winning Buffalo Soldier. In 2019 she won the Scottish Teenage Book Prize for her critically acclaimed novella One Shot. Tanya says that she loves how writing allows her to daydream – something she was always in trouble for at school! She lives in Devon with her sons, a Siamese cat and two Labradors.