Anyone with a tie to London's East End is likely to enjoy Patricia Friedberg's latest novel.

Endorsed by historian Sir Martin Gilbert, 21 Aldgate is set in the pre-WWII Jewish East End and Chelsea. It is the story of a young Jewish woman who goes to work for the French artist Paul Maze, and the relationship that ensues. Mrs Friedberg, a great grandmother, has already been in touch with a production company about developing it into a film.

She tells People: "The book came about because of the people I have known. I have written for a long time and this story has always come back to me.

"My grandparents used to live in the East End and I used to go there. Any person who lived in that century - from the early 1900s to 2000 - went through so much.

"They were very special people and the book is written with them in mind."

Born in London, Mrs Friedberg divides her time between the UK and the US, where she hosted a television talk show People of the Book for an NBC affiliate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She also wrote regular newspaper columns. The author of two children's books, Mrs Friedberg spent many years as a journalist in South Africa and the Rhodesias and has composed music for theatre.