The Estate of Lena Kennedy

Lena Kennedy was sixty-four before her first novel, Maggie, was accepted for publication. Having lived in The East End all her life, she was able to use her knowledge of the area and its people to great effect, writing with tremendous energy about the characters and times she had known and experienced there.

In The Last of the Shack dwellers, she looks back on the formative influences that shaped her career, such as the idyllic summers spent at her family's 'holiday home' in Kent where among the `shack-dwellers` of the woods and the simple beauty of the countryside she began to realise her growing need to express her feelings through writing. Lena also vividly describes the long search for a publisher, Her joy at finding success, and the setback late in life that nearly robbed her of many years` work.

Lena Kennedy died in 1986, and some of her books have subsequently been published posthumously. The Last of The Shack dwellers is a significant addition to this Bestselling collection, and, told in her inimitable style, sheds much light on the life of one of Britain`s best-loved novelists. 

`Lena Kennedy is a natural storyteller...Dickensian energy, a huge range of vivid characters, and a clear delight in telling us about them` - Daily Telegraph