Title: Eating from the Cherry Tree
Author: Vivien Ella Walden
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 282
Rating: 8/10
Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, I received a copy of this for free to review.
I wasn’t too sure what to expect from this book, and I certainly didn’t expect it to be as good as it was. Sure, I picked up the odd typo here and there, but I’ve been known to do that with books from Harper Collins, so sue me - they didn’t break my concentration in the way they sometimes do, and so I’m giving this book a rating that it deserves.
Basically, this book is essentially the memoirs of a British prostitute turned madam, and trust me there is a difference. Other than walking past strippers in a window in Amsterdam and once going to Spearmint Rhino in London, I’m not particularly au fait with the inner workings of the brothel. But then, that’s why I read books like this - it’s like how I love books about heroin addicts, despite the fact that I’ve never been a heroin addict. It gives you a glimpse of another world, and Vivien managed to paint that portrait perfectly.
One of the interesting things here is that Vivien also met and worked with a number of celebrities in her time, and while I wasn’t particularly interested in that aspect, I was blown away when I discovered that the guy who played Les Battersby in Coronation Street discovered one of the bodies of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe‘s victims. I mean, how can you not love a book when it teaches you weird little facts like that?
Click here to buy Eating from the Cherry Tree.
