A Cornish Waif's Story An Autobiography

by Emma Smith (Author), AL Rowse (Foreword), Simon Parker (Preface)

‘A Cornish Waif’s Story’ recounts the extraordinary life of Emma Smith, from her earliest memories of being sold to an itinerant organ grinder and his wife, begging for her living through the byways of Cornwall, the squalor of the hovels in Plymouth and the degradation of the workhouse.

Her triumph over such appalling adversities makes for compelling reading. ‘Had A Cornish Waif’s Story been a novel, it would have been well-constructed, neat and satisfying, all the loose ends tied up. But real life isn’t like that; it’s untidy and unpredictable’.

Simon Parker in his introduction to this new edition calls it ‘perhaps the most authentic account of Victorian child abuse since Dickens’.

A L Rowse in his forward to the first edition in 1954 said, ‘it gives us a unique insight into a way of life totally unknown to most of us...life in the raw’. ‘this fascinating book...hope shines through it.’ LP Hartley