Author, and ex-King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls student, Gina Maddison, has written a book chronicling her time at secondary school and her experiences of growing up in 1960s and 70s Birmingham.
Born in 1957, Gina was one of the last generation of children to grow up in the Birmingham Back to Back houses; two up, one down, no bathroom, inside toilet, or hot running water, and heated by coal fires; courts centred around a back yard with a brewhouse, outside toilets and sheds often containing racing pigeons.
‘A Grammar School Girl’ focusses on Gina’s formative years at King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls, life on the Newtown Estate in the 1970s when the new council estates were seen as places of better housing and great promise, and the story of Birmingham in the 1970s – a time of strikes and strife, change and conflict – the Three Day Week, decimilisation, and the Birmingham bombings.
We spoke to Gina about both her upcoming book, and her previous releases:
“I grew up in the 1960s, a time when Birmingham was known as The Workshop of the World, and the City of a Thousand and One Trades. In many ways, the Sixties were a Golden Age: the fashions, the politics, the music, the hairstyles, the World Cup. But there was tragedy too: thalidomide, accidents in factories, poverty, a heavily polluted city.
I passed the Eleven Plus in 1968, and went to King Edward’s Grammar School, Handsworth. From there, I went to university thanks to the grants system, the first of my family to do so, and became a teacher and librarian for Birmingham, Sandwell and Flintshire Councils.
When I retired, I looked around for books to read on growing up in a working-class community in Birmingham in the 1960s and 1970s and could find very little. And so, I decided to write my own.”
When asked about her inspiration for writing the book, Gina commented: “Incidentally, I was inspired in the writing of ‘A Grammar School Girl’ by Alison Thorne’s centenary history of King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls – she was my History teacher at School and appears in the book! And also by my collection of The Beacon, the school magazines of the 60s and 70s – there was so much information in them! And my old Speech Day programmes – all those prizes, tournaments, the Founder’s Prayer and the School hymns. I also felt Birmingham had a story that wasn’t just about us being Peaky Blinders, or being poor and miserable as so often showed in the media – and the spirit of the indomitable Second City was indeed demonstrated in their recent wonderful opening and closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games.”
Previously, Gina has published two other books, ‘The Girl from Guildford St’ acts as a memoir and was published by Brewin Books in 2018, and ‘Tales of Guildford St’, a family saga, was published under the pen name Emilia Williams in 2020. Gina calls them “love letters to Birmingham and her people, a tribute to a time that is gone.”
Since retiring, Gina has been very active with the Handsworth Old Edwardian Society. “Like many folks, I lost touch with the school during my working years but re-joining the Handsworth Old Edwardian Society was one of the first things I did when I retired, and I’d encourage everyone to do it. We have meetings three times a year with a guest speaker (this has been me, speaking on my books!) and we have a dedicated Facebook page and various WhatsApp Groups (and haven’t we adjusted well to the technological age!)
The meetings always include a tour of the school – it’s great to see the new buildings, but of course I love to see the Hall and classrooms of my youth. We are invited to events at School, and we are involved in fundraising. I particularly enjoyed visiting the new library to present copies of my books, and being interviewed on them by three delightful young ladies!”
“One of the most important things King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls taught me was that a woman can do or be anything. Value that education, it’s the best in the world.
Enjoy your time – they were amongst the happiest years of my life.
The values that King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls taught are still important to me – care, charity, compassion, tolerance, duty. And that a diverse community can exist in harmony, devoted to a common good”.
“A Grammar School Girl” will be released in December 2022 by Brewin Books, with all proceeds going to charity. Gina does talks on her books and can be contacted on [email protected]
