I WOULD like to thank the many people who contacted me with stories and thoughts about East London. I have now completed a book, tracing the area from pre-history to the present day, called: My East End: A History of Cockney London, which will be published in hardback this September by Viking, and in Penguin paperback some time next year.

After five years' hard work, I want also to thank everyone for being so patient, especially when I took a break following the sad loss of my mother, Dolly. She would have been thrilled to know that the back cover features a picture of her hop-picking with me as a little girl, and that the front of the jacket had a picture of Cockney kids carrying home their 'farthing bundles' of treasures - such as picture cards, beads and old comics - from the Fern Street Settlement, a place she herself often visited as a child.

My thanks again.

Gilda O'Neill

c/o Tanja Howarth Literary

Agency, New Row

Covent Garden, London

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.