Description

This is the story of a home. A story rooted in love. The story of a poet born of an Irish jazz musician and a Jamaican go-go dancer, an absent father and a resilient mother.

In Springfield Road, Salena Godden evokes an era when oranges seemed bigger and summers were longer, a world of half-penny sweets, free school milk, hand-me-downs and Thatcher’s Britain, for those too young to remember and for those old enough to know. For Salena, it was a time for learning that life can be brutal with first betrayals and first losses, but also that there are endless riches to uncover in the world.

In equal parts powerful, tender and fearless, Springfield Road shows us where, in a world full of shadows, hope is to be found.

Publisher Review

Honest, grippingly readable, funny and uplifting — MAGGIE GEE, OBE [Salena’s] writing is urgent and detailed, colourful and clamorous. Like all love stories, her memoir is intense, intimate — IAIN FINLAYSON * * The Times * * Throughout, Godden writes about a past that is at once deeply personal yet also belongs to the everyman figure; her descriptions of childhood are simultaneously timeless and yet rooted in a particular period of British history — DEBJANI BISWAS-HAWKES * * The Literateur * * A lyrical and witty memoir painting a portrait of the artist as a young girl . . Springfield Road’s prose wavers effortlessly throughout, from tender poignancy to raw, gritty realism and this lovely book serves to remind us that however much the world has changed in the last forty years, in many ways it is still exactly the same — LEE BULLMAN * * Loud and Quiet Magazine * * Salena Godden is an absolute master of, knowing your assumptions, playing to them, and then flipping them completely — LAURA TAYLOR * * Write Out Loud * * Salena Godden is a powerhouse — NICOLE CAPO * * Sabotage Reviews * * Praise for Mrs Death Misses Death: A fantastically imaginative story about life, death and everything in between – a potent reminder that life is short and every second should be cherished — IDRIS ELBA A modern-day Pilgrim’s Progress leavened with caustic wit . . . This is not light-hearted stuff, yet Godden has produced a miraculously light-hearted novel . . . an elegant, occasionally uproarious, danse macabre * * Guardian * * Exquisite. A daring, poetic offering that establishes Godden as one of our most exciting voices. I loved it — IRENOSEN OKOJIE A rhythmic and powerful poetic meditation on death, life and love and the hidden mysteries of the universe; both playful and sombre, hilarious and human — NIKESH SHUKLA