As mentioned in the post below, novelist Arthur Morrison was mysterious about his early life. The late Stan Newens, former MP and local historian of London and Essex, broke new ground in 2008 with his excellent biography of Morrison – Arthur Morrison: The Novelist of Realism in East London and Essex (Loughton & District Historical Society, £4.50).

Newens was also the person who originally introduced his constituent Arthur Harding to historian Raphael Samuel – and that’s how the East End Underworld oral history project began (see blogpost on this site). Newens’s own autobiography, In Search of A Fairer Society: My Life and Politics, is published by the Memoir Club.