Pie and Mash Down the Roman Road

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE HWA NON-FICTION CROWN 2018 AND THE ANDRÉ SIMON FOOD BOOK AWARDS 2019

‘Filled with hearty goodness and packed together with care, this will go down a treat’ Evening Standard

‘Rich and compelling’ Spectator

‘An accomplished social history … lively and absorbing’ Who Do You Think You Are?

The fascinating history of an iconic East End institution from the bestselling author of Silvertown, Melanie McGrath.

G Kelly’s Pie and Mash has been run by the same family in the Roman Road in Bow for nearly a hundred years; an East End institution and the still point of a turning world. Outside its windows the Roman Road has seen an extraordinary revolution – from women’s liberation and industrialisation to wars and immigration – and yet at its heart it remains one of the last traditional market roads of London.

Pie and Mash down the Roman Road is the biography of that shop and of the people – customers, suppliers, employees, owners – who passed through it, and continue to do so. Through vivid tales of ordinary lives the book tells the extraordinary story of the community living around the oldest trading route in Britain, and the true heart of the East End.Melanie McGrath was born in Essex, and is the author of critically acclaimed, bestselling non-fiction about the East End of London (Silvertown and Hopping). She can trace her family back 300 years in the East End and City of London. As MJ McGrath and Mel McGrath she writes fiction. Her Edie Kiglatuk Arctic mysteries have been twice longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger award. She has written two London-based psychological thrillers, Give Me the Child and (forthcoming) The Hookup. She also writes for the national press and is a regular broadcaster on radio. Her work is published in twenty languages. Melanie lives and works in London.An emotional encounter with Bow’s very tumultuous history—Roman Road LDNFilled with hearty goodness and packed together with care, this book will go down a treat.—Evening StandardA still point in a turning world . . . a shop front onto the past—Mail on Sundayan accomplished social history … lively and absorbing—Who Do You Think You Are? magazineHer empathetic ability to inhabit vanished streets and catch authentic voices – at a point when you wonder how much longer they will be around – is rich and compelling—Spectator

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