It's 1952 and Britain is slowly climbing out of the austerity of the immediate post-war years when Dolly White gets the letter she and her husband Jack have been yearning for: they are going to live in a brand new, five-roomed house on the Heath Park Estate, Dagenham. A home in Cromwell Close is beyond the wildest dreams of the Whites and the other seven families whose fortunes, dramas, losses, dreams and lives we share while they all rub along together in neighbourly harmony in The Banjo.

"The Banjo - One and Two, are novels both based on living in Dagenham from 1950s to present day (August 2020). Documenting the life of a group of families growing up on the estate and the changes experienced. It is an excellent social history as well as an entertaining read." - Lena Smith

Barking and Dagenham nomination.