Maisie Mosco (7 December 1924 – 31 October 2011) was an English writer. She was born as Maisie Gottlieb in

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...

, northeast of Manchester, England, on 7 December 1924, the eldest of three children. Her parents were of

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

n Jewish and

Viennese Viennese may refer to: * Vienna, the capital of Austria * Viennese people, List of people from Vienna * Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna * Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city * Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance * V ...

Jewish descent. Their respective families settled in England in the late 19th century, and both her parents were born in Manchester. A clever girl, she wanted to study medicine though because of her mother's illness, and as the eldest child, she had to leave school at the age of 14 to help in the family business. At the age of 18 she joined the

ATS ATS or Ats may refer to: Businesses * ATS Wheels, or ''Auto Technisches Spezialzubehör'', a German wheel manufacturer and sponsor of a Formula One racing team * ATS Automation Tooling Systems, an Ontario, Canada-based factory automation company ...

and by the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, was helping to teach illiterate soldiers how to read. She married twice: to Aubrey Liston in 1948, then to Gerald Mosco in 1957. She died in London on 31 October 2011, aged 86.

Writings

After the war, she edited a Manchester Jewish weekly newspaper, the '' Jewish Gazette'', subsequently writing radio plays for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

. One of her stage plays, ''Happy Family'', became the basis of a horror film ''

Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly ''Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny, and Girly'', released as ''Girly'' outside the United Kingdom, is a 1970 British horror-comedy film. The film originated as a dream project for renowned cinematographer-turned-director Freddie Francis, who wanted the oppor ...

''. She also wrote 16 novels between 1979 and 1998. These include the 'Almonds and Raisins' series (''Almonds & Raisins'', ''Scattered Seed'', ''Children's Children'', ''Out of the Ashes'', and ''New Beginnings''), about a Jewish family who around 1900 fled

anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and emigrated to north

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

in England. These books contained elements of her own family history. In ''Almonds and Raisins'' the newly arrived Sandberg family see a tram for the first time - a Manchester double-decker. Abraham (the father) exclaims, "A train with two storeys? And no roof?" anchester trams were open-topped in the late 19th and early 20th century.The local rabbi explains: "In English, they call it a tram.... In Yiddish, we don't have a word for it." "In the wire overhead, there's electricity, we don't have a word for that either."

References

External links

Bibliography
* 1924 births 2011 deaths People from Oldham English women novelists 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers English people of Austrian-Jewish descent English people of Latvian-Jewish descent {{UK-writer-stub