Rachel Lichtenstein is a writer heavily influenced by her personal history. Her books On Brick Lane, Rodinsky's Room and Diamond Street all have links in some way to her family connections to the east of London.
Although she has never written specifically about Whitechapel, it is an area she associates strongly with her grandparents, who moved there from Poland in the 1930s. But it is also an area that is rapidly changing: now, the small Jewish synagogue sits next to the currently expanding mosque. Madeleine and Rachel talk about documenting a place in flux, and consider how to address nostaligia when approaching such personal work.
