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BLUE PLAQUE UNVEILED TO HONOUR
ACCLAIMED AUTHOR HELEN FORRESTER
A prestigious Blue Plaque has been unveiled at the childhood home of
acclaimed author Helen Forrester, who penned a series of best-selling
books including Twopence To Cross The Mersey.
The plaque was officially unveiled at Helen’s childhood home in Warren Road,
in Hoylake on the Wirral Peninsula, at a special presentation on Friday (21
February), led by Helen’s son Robert Bhatia who had travelled from his home
in Canada specially for the events.
Actors Sian Reeves and Mark Moraghan unveiled the plaque, they play Helen’s
Mother and Father in the new stage production of By The Waters Of Liverpool.
Guests also included the Deputy Mayor Of Wirral, Councillor George Davies.
Robert Bhatia commented: “I am thrilled to see this Blue Plaque where my
Mother discovered her passion for books on her grandmother’s bookshelves.
It is also where she longed to come if only she had twopence to cross the
Mersey. The partnership between playwright Rob Fennah and my mother
Helen, and her legacy, has been outstanding.”
Helen Forrester won a legion of loyal fans through her gritty, working class
memoirs which also included Liverpool Miss, By The Waters Of Liverpool
and Lime Street At Two. Her autobiographical writing was characterised by
a lack of self-pity and an unsettling honesty as she portrayed her life during
the Great Depression of the 1930s. The latest work of Helen’s works to be
brought to life on stage is By The Waters Of Liverpool, and follows a hugely
successful run at the Liverpool Empire Theatre in October 2018, when the
new production was premièred to rave reviews. The show is about to embark
on a 17-theatre tour of the UK.
The new touring production of By The Waters Of Liverpool is again produced
by Pulse Records Limited in association with Bill Elms and is directed by
Gareth Tudor Price. Writer and friend of Helen Forrester, Rob Fennah, has
written both the stage play versions of Twopence To Cross The Mersey and By
The Waters Of Liverpool.
Helen’s Blue Plaque joins a whole host of other sites across Wirral which have
been recognised with the accolade, awarded by Conservation Areas Wirral.
Others include Prime Minister Harold Wilson; poet Wilfred Owen; Ann
Davison, first female to sail the Atlantic solo in a small boat; and Everton
and Tranmere footballer Dixie Dean. Born June Huband on 6 June 1919 in
Hoylake, Helen was the eldest of seven children of inept, socialite, middle-
class parents who lived on credit. When her father was made bankrupt during
the Great Depression, the family was thrown into poverty. Evicted from their
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comfortable home in England’s gentler South West, with nothing more than
the clothes they stood up in, the large family took the train to Liverpool
where they hoped to rebuild their lives. While Forrester’s father searched
unsuccessfully for work, the family were forced to live together in a bug-
infested single room. As the eldest child, the 12-year-old Helen was kept away
from school to look after her six younger brothers and sisters. For the next
few years the family had to rely on meagre hand-outs from the parish and
the kindness of strangers. At the age of 14, Forrester rebelled against her life
of drudgery and her parents agreed to allow her to attend evening classes to
make up for her missed years of education. Throughout her teenage years,
Forrester worked for a charitable organisation in Liverpool and it was this
period in her life that provided the background for many of her books.
During her family’s estranged years suffering in the slums of Liverpool,
across the River Mersey, in the affluent Wirral suburbs lived her well-heeled
grandmother. She had fallen out with her son after he had borrowed heavily
from family members and was unable to repay his debts. Condemning him
as a worthless spendthrift, Helen’s grandmother would have no more to do
with him. Despite this, Helen was convinced that if she could muster up the
tuppence required for a ferry boat ticket, she could visit her grandmother,
explain what was happening to the family, and she would come to their rescue.
Although this never came to pass, it did provide the title of her first book,
Twopence To Cross The Mersey.
Helen had previously said: “For the first six months of my life I lived at
Grandma’s house in Hoylake with my mother; my father was overseas fighting
in Russia. In subsequent years, until the age of 11, I spent all my school
holidays there. They were the happiest days of my childhood.”
After surviving the Blitzing of Liverpool and losing two consecutive fiancés to
the Second World War she went on to marry Dr. Avadh Bhatia in 1950. The
couple travelled widely, eventually settling in Edmonton, Canada. In 1955, Dr.
Bhatia became director of the Theoretical Physics Institute at the University
of Alberta. Helen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University
of Liverpool in 1988 and by the University of Alberta in 1993. She died on
24 November 2011 in Edmonton aged 92. Her writing continues to inspire
readers around the world.
By The Waters Of Liverpool Spring 2020 UK Tour opens on Tuesday 3 March
at the New Brighton Floral Pavilion in Wirral – just a few miles from where
author Helen Forrester was born.
Visit www.bythewatersofliverpool.com for more information.