Local author Carole Payne was born in Forest Gate in 1950, the second of six children, after her family fled India, the country that had been their home for generations, but where it had become too dangerous to remain.

Carole spent her childhood being shaped by the excitement of London in the 1960s and ‘70s, first as a student at St Angela’s Convent, then City University, before setting off to fulfill her many goals, one of which was writing.

She achieved success on all fronts: a career, marriage and children, but it was becoming a grandmother that inspired her to write her first book, called Times Of My Life. Carole wanted to pass on to her grandchild the many stories, memories and traditions she had continued from her mother and grandmother.

In Times Of My Life, Carole shares the premarital years of her life growing up in Forest Gate in a time before technology played such a big role in childhood. It is available to buy from Newham Bookshop.

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