Closer than Blood: Friendship Helps You Survive

Closer than Blood: Friendship Helps You Survive
Julie Shaw

Previously published as My Mam Shirley.Behind the notorious Hudson men who dominated the Canterbury Estate for over 30 years were the girls, and my mam Shirley.The third instalment of this gritty series recounts the incredible stories of the unflinching women behind the legendary Hudson family.The Canterbury Estate in Bradford during the ’50s and ’60s was a tight-knit community reared on poverty, crime and violence, and at the top of the heap were the infamous Hudson family. But it wasn’t just the boys who had a story to tell: from matriarch Annie, who gave birth to 13 children, to daughters Margaret and Eunice, who married up and out, each had a personality as indomitable as the last.Then came Shirley Read, who was just 17 when she fell in love with Keith, one of the Hudson lads. To Shirley, the only child of affluent parents, the poverty of the unruly estate was as exciting as it was mysterious; newspapers for tablecloths, jam jars for cups, and, even by that time, no electricity. But it was a friendship forged with Annie and June, the younger Hudson sisters, that would teach Shirley not only to how to survive, Canterbury-style, but would also give her the strength to overcome an unexpected personal tragedy that would soon become a nightmare for women across the world…Eye-opening and warm, this is the vivid account of the ‘Tucker’ girls; the resourceful women at the helm of a notorious Bradford family who will never be forgotten.

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Copyright (#ufa6136de-ceb5-5303-ac0c-961130b740c2)

All names and identities have been changed in this memoir, to protect both the living and the children of those who have died. Some changes have been made to historical facts for the same reason.

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First published by HarperElement 2014 as My Mam Shirley This edition 2018

© Julie Shaw and Lynne Barrett-Lee 2014

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018 Cover photographs © plainpicture/Emma McIntyre (woman); plainpicture/bobsairport (moody street)

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Julie Shaw and Lynne Barrett-Lee assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work

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Source ISBN: 9780007542284

Ebook Edition © February 2018 ISBN: 9780007542291

Version: 2018-02-21

Contents

Cover (#ub7783408-9a5c-55ca-86c0-ddf025f78984)

Title Page (#uc37350a2-6cc2-5fcd-8c06-29db2725250c)

Copyright (#ulink_c237347c-ba0a-5f0f-a930-c6c6f730be19)

Echoes of My Past (#ulink_71708567-b440-5570-b9c4-77eb431f38c9)

Note by the Author (#ulink_00de1f97-c0b4-54ea-8ede-13c68dfb2d42)

Hudson Family Tree (#u29c5c1cf-2e43-569a-9e5f-c25cf63b922d)

Prologue (#ulink_d338aea0-1554-51dc-9e5d-35430a6452e7)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_e96e8a0d-279a-5f91-b84f-1bb2f309a65a)

Chapter 2 (#ulink_e1693d6a-07dd-551f-9201-72f4c78af456)

Chapter 3 (#ulink_3a712b41-cd16-548f-9eb4-43ec4d6bbcc7)

Chapter 4 (#ulink_07304c44-3152-51cf-bf26-a0592aaba6f2)

Chapter 5 (#ulink_8db0289a-56d8-5cc3-a972-9d66a6a46a3e)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)