The Sugar Girls

Tales of Hardship, Love and Happiness in Tate & Lyle¿s East End Factories. The Sugar Girls went straight to No.10 in the Sunday Times Bestseller List, spending five weeks in the top ten.¿On an autumn day in 1944, Ethel Alleyne walked the short distance from her house to Tate & Lyle¿s refinery on the shining curve of the Thames. Looking up at the giant gates, Ethel felt like she had been preparing for this moment all her life. She smoothed down her frizzy hair, scraped a bit of dirt off the corner of her shoe and strode through.She was quite unprepared for the sight that met her eyes ¿¿In the years leading up to and after the Second World War thousands of women left school at fourteen to work in the bustling factories of London¿s East End. Despite long hours, hard and often hazardous work, factory life afforded exciting opportunities for independence, friendship and romance. Of all the factories that lined the docks, it was at Tate & Lyle¿s where you could earn the most generous wages a