Aunt Babsey considered herself a cut above her eighbours on Everton Ridge. For one thing she as 'trade' - she ran a greengrocery shop in public, nd a money-lending business in private. She taught er children to be respectable, keep up appearances, nd not to mix with people like the Crowleys ho were both Catholic and Irish. She ruled her amily with a rod of iron. ourteen-year-old Louisa was the only one who idn't quite fit into the family scheme of things. ouisa, with her mother dead and her father away t sea, was becoming increasingly conscious that hile Aunt Babsey's family was comfortable enough, ll around them was hardship and the grinding poverty f the thirties. As she grew up into a graceful and entle young woman, so the tough conditions of iverpool began to impinge on her life - love, war, etrayal, death - all made her determined to seek her wn path, both in the man she loved, and the work he wanted to do - work which would eventually make her famous throughout her city as Liverpool Lou.