A small light-red hardback book with the title, author and publisher, in black, on the spine. The fly leaf has the title only, and the title page has the title in large, bold print, above the author, with no additions. The publisher is below, as from James Street, London, with no date. The publication date is on the reverse, and the printer, W. & J. Mackay, Chatham, is over the Publisher's insignia. Below this is the statement: 'No imaginary person appears in this book. All incidents actually happened.' placed over the author's name.

In the same vein there follows a statement, over a page and a half, by the author, addressed to the reader, and constituting a touching preface. She is writing as 'Presenting my World to the World' to portray the realities of being a child - one among 1,400 - around 1930, in the Barnardo's Girls' Village Home at Barkingside, which, she states, 'provided the happiest and finest environment for the upbringing of homeless, neglected, or those unwanted children.'

She dedicates it to the 'Hon. Ann Machnaghtan and Miss B. Picton-Turbervill, Governors of the Girls' Village Homes for upwards of twenty years. As was said of Dr. Barnardo, in whose footsteps they followed so understandingly, 'they are friends to The Likes of Us.'

There is no list of contents, and its 192 pages are divided into four 'Books': Early Years, Reorganisation, The Changing Years, and Growing Up, each taking a few chapters.

Comment: an unusual book.

The style is distinctly direct, unsophisticated, but well-constructed, and describes the life of the family in one particular Cottage of the Village, with detail and sensitivity, in relation to the Village at large, and the School, Church, Laundry, Office, and Clothing Store in particular. The later sections are seen through the eyes and feelings of a sensitive adolescent girl, and the whole story clearly written or polished after her further education.

Comment: an invaluable account of how institutional loving care can provide for the unwanted girl.

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