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Heidi Kaufman's book, "Strangers in the Archive: Literary Evidence and London's East End," explores the life and work of Maria Polack, an openly Jewish Englishwoman who published the first novel by a Jewish woman in 1830. Kaufman's research reveals that Polack's novel, "Fiction without Romance, or The Locket-Watch," targeted a broad Jewish readership across various communities, including readers in British colonies like Jamaica and Barbados. Kaufman expands Polack's archive by consulting the Legacies of British Slave-Ownership website, comparing subscriber data with other publications, and incorporating private papers from the Lyon family, who had connections to the West Indies. Kaufman's work highlights the interconnectedness of East and West End literary culture and challenges stereotypes of urban degeneration. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores the employment experience of workers at the Eastern Palace Cinema in East London, in 1934. In August 1934, a member of staff murdered the cinema's manager. The witness statements taken in the subsequent criminal investigation give a unique insight into the operations of 1930s cinemas and the working conditions of the people who were employed in them. The statements give voice to a group of service staff that had limited means of relating their lived experience. The article contrasts these statements with contemporary advice on cinema operations from guidebooks and trade papers to explore how trade advice translated into reality. It also draws on archival sources to excavate the backgrounds of cinema staff across roles. This adds to our understanding of the experience of staff employed in the most popular leisure industry of interwar Britain, an area that has not yet been extensively researched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]