They were, however, very tribal, and depending on which factory they worked at, workers would speak of themselves as coming from 'Tates's' or 'Lyles's', competing against each other at netball, athletics, football and cricket in the company sports day, which was held once a year.

[3] In a separate article, her co-author Duncan Barrett made a similar point: 'The women we spoke to recalled the great pride their mothers would take in keeping their houses spotless and how, despite a lack of money, families would always make do, helping out the neighbours when they could, knowing that the favour would always be returned.

When we handed in the manuscript of the book, our publishers were a little surprised, perhaps expecting the predictable Dickensian East End of much misery-memoir writing.

'[7] In a quotation featured on the cover of the paperback, Melanie McGrath, author of the books Silvertown and Hopping, described the book as 'An authoritative and highly readable work of social history which brings vividly to life a fascinating part of East End life before it is lost forever.'

[10] In 2024, Barrett and Calvi released a sequel, The Sugar Girls of Love Lane, this time focussing on the women who worked at Tate & Lyle’s Liverpool factory, from the 1960s until its closure in 1981.