West End Girls

<P><B>A vivid and compelling memoir recounting the real lives, loves and friendship of 1940s Soho and its working girls.</B><br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.</P>