“Half memoir, half travel, A Yank Back to England...is an absolutely wonderful book, not only about going home again but also about love and family and tradition and the passage of the years.”
—Michael Dirda, Pulitzer Prize-winning literary critic (Washington
Post)
To see the entire quote, click here.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Dagenham? You come from ... where?

“Dagenham? You can’t possibly come from Dagenham!” a flamboyant acquaintance in the West End of London once told me. “You simply must tell people you come from ‘Darn-em’ and you must place your hand over your mouth as you say it, just in case.”
Just in case? In case of what? I felt an urge to defend the place, but then thought better of it.
Dagenham. “Call it Daggers,” said another wag. Well, I called it home.

3 comments:

Mandy said...

Hee hee. When we first moved here, I moved ahead of Mr Emm and was tasked with finding a house for us to stay in. So I found a beautiful little house by a lake with swans and everything. Being from South Africa, the fact that it was in Thamesmead (and what that meant) was completely lost on me... it was only later that we met our very scary neighbours and I'm still trying to live it down with my colleagues.

The Prodigal Tourist said...

Oh, no! That's funny--on the wrong side of Ripple Road, ay? (not that there's a right side!)Did you actually buy the place or did the hubcap save the day? Actually, we've been told that "Daggers" is quite upscale now, attracting arty types and actors, etc., but I don't quite believe it!

Mandy said...

Yes, I've heard Dagenham is getting a bit posh too! We rented that place and luckily our landlord wanted to sell after a year. We moved to Sidcup and our next landlord did the same thing after a year so now we're in Dartford. I like it here (and hope never t move again)!