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Jenny Fulcher was born in the East End in 1903 and stayed put until she died 91 years later. Now Melanie McGrath has committed her life to print, and she's done her grandma proud.

We see Jenny as a 14-year-old leaving school to start sewing in the local sweatshop, getting all her teeth pulled out three years later to pre-empt dentists' bills, marrying a spivvy ex-soldier called Len, bearing him two children, losing one of them when Len moves to Hampshire with his mistress.

It's a difficult mix of fact and speculation but it's beautifully done, affectionate yet unsentimental, funny and moving.

McGrath largely keeps herself out of it, but those odd moments of personal memory are some of the best.

Anyone whose own grandmother also stashed sweets should get a lot out of lines like, "Even after her hearing went she was never quite deaf to the rustling of humbug wrappers."