The Orchard Fire by Shena Mackay is set in 1950s London and Kent and is a delightful childhood story. But, as shown on the cover description, some parts were creepy, especially Mr. Greenridge's unwanted attentions to a young girl, and Ruby's home life was cringeworthy.From the cover:
When Percy and Betty Harlency abandon their seedy Streatham pub for the Copper Kettle Tearoom in Kent, life for their daughter, April, changes dramatically. She is befriended by the wonderfully dangerous Ruby, whose red hair and brutal home life emphasize her love of fire, and by the creepy but, immaculately dressed Mr. Greenridge, who likes to follow her around the village mingling the innocent with the sinister and laced with the tragic and the bizarre, this is a rare evocation of a 1950s childhood.
