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Annie B Brown has lived in the village of Church Crookham for 25 years but grew up somewhere very different in South East London, the inspiration for her debut novel Long Live Love
Fond memories of growing up in South East London in the 1960s, the vibrant fashions and ground breaking music are at the heart of Annie B Brown’s debut novel.
A baby boomer growing up Walworth, Annie confesses to loving all things Sixties which provided the inspiration for her family drama Long Live Love.
“It was a time when communities pulled together, neighbours and locals looking out for each other,” she reminisces. “The famous East Lane market where the majority gathered at weekends, carried the excitement, colour and drama of a circus. Walworth was a great place to be.”
She earned the writing bug from a primary school together “who enthralled us youngsters with stories she’d written”. Annie wrote regularly as a teenager and had her first two short stories accepted at age 22. She wrote fiction for The Brownie and The Girl Guide magazines for many years after as well as stories and poems for local newspapers, winning a few competitions.
Long Live Love is a family drama set in 1969 in Walworth following the lives of a fractured family, in particular, two of the sisters who are forced to live apart.
Annie explains: “It is a tale of resilience, danger, and the enduring strength of familial bonds and community. It explores whether love can mend the deep wounds etched into the sisters’ hearts. And whether the family, as a whole, find the strength to reunite in the face of adversity.”
Based around the East Lane market, sub plots involve the lives of typical local characters. “It is a story written during a time when you truly were a part of the community. People supported each other”, enthuses Annie. “The market is the hub of the community and where most of the local gather at the weekends. The traders would flirt with the smiling cross armed ladies while the men raised their eyes to the sky, having heard the good humoured banter many times before. Humour is the essence of life and us Londoners have it in abundance.”
Walworth is famed for being the birthplace of Charlie Chaplin with local pub, The Thomas A Beckett, famous for its upstairs boxing club, where pugilists Sir Henry Cooper, Muhammad Ali, and Joe Frazier sparred. The Kray twins apparently sparred there too!
Annie recalls one particular memory concerning the great train robbery in 1963. “My father and elder sister were making their way home along Great Dover Street, on the outskirts of Walworth. As they drew close to the public transport telephone box, my sister spotted two bugling sacks inside. With no one close by she was desperate to investigate, but my father advised against it. The newscaster that evening spoke about monies recovered from the robbery. Those two filled sacks found in the telephone box contained £50,000!”
The book is available from Amazon & Waterstones online.
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