This is another of the social histories from this author, which follows the fortunes of a family of hauliers and the people living in the streets around them in the working districts of London. The wharves are bombed in the Blitz, the men are called up and a feud between two families taints the atmosphere for all around them. The war is declared halfway through this tale so it can feel slow to begin with. The early part builds on previous books about the hauliers and links the two families once more even as they vie for contracts. The majority of the tale occurs in Bermondsey and nearby Rotherhithe, south of the Thames. The backstreet child of the title refers to Rachel, a daughter of one family, who joins up for war work and goes to an air operations unit where she helps to plot the course of approaching bombers. The whole community is well portrayed and shown to be cohesive in times of trouble. I enjoyed this read although I had not read the previous two stories about the same characters.
