Behind Bars

As a landlady, Joan Lee was a marvel. Imagine Bet Lynch's bustier, wiser sister, always at the heart of the party; a woman who did things her own way. Joan was born into a teetotal, chapel-going family in 1923 in Handsworth, Sheffield. As a teenager in the Blitz, she found herself perilously close to the bombs and destruction, but she also found the love of her life, Fred Lee. She incurred the wrath of her parents, as her boyfriend's parents were in the pub trade, but she went on to become one of Sheffield's longest serving landladies, with over fifty years spent "behind bars" in pubs from the East End of Sheffield to leafy Dronfield. Pubs have changed beyond recognition in Joan's lifetime. In the 50s and 60s, the coal and steel industries dominated Sheffield, and landlords ruled their pubs, keeping order with an iron fist. This book is a window into that lost world.