Mrs Miles's Diary

Mrs Miles's Diary

Author: Constance Miles

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2013-08-15

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 1471125599

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Better times will come again - a fascinating insight into how ordinary people cope in extraordinary circumstances. At the outbreak of the Second World War Constance Miles was living with her husband in the pretty Surrey village of Shere. A prolific correspondent with a keen interest in current affairs, Constance kept a war journal from 1939 to 1943, recording in vivid detail what life was like for women on the Home Front. She writes of the impact of evacuees, of food shortages and the creative uses of what food there was, and the fears of the local populace, who wonder how they will cope. She tells of refugees from central Europe billeted in village houses and, later in the war, of the influx of American servicemen. She travels frequently to London, mourning the destruction of familiar landmarks and recording the devastation of the Blitz, but still finds time for tea in the Strand. In a time when people were asked to put national interests above their own personal comfort and liberty, a time when they, too, were reassured that they’d meet loved ones again, Mrs Miles’s diaries makes for compulsive reading.


Nella Last's Peace

Nella Last's Peace

Author: Patricia Malcolmson

Publisher: Profile Books

Published: 2010-09-03

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1847651275

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Outwardly Nella's life was probably seen as ordinary; but behind this mask were a lively mind and a persistent pen - a pen that never gave up over almost three decades, reporting, describing, pondering, and disclosing. Nella, 55 when the war ends, writes of what ordinary people felt during those years of privation, hope and the re-building of Britain, providing a moving and inspiring account of the years that shaped the society we live in today. Her diary offers a detailed, moving and humorous narrative of the changing experiences of ordinary people at this time, and thoughts on the aftermath of war and whether 'peace' really meant peace, for everyone.


Nella Last's War

Nella Last's War

Author: Nella Last

Publisher: Profile Books

Published: 2018-01-25

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1847654088

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'Next to being a mother, I'd have loved to write books...' Nella Last, Oct 8, 1939 In September 1939, housewife and mother Nella Last began a diary whose entries, in their regularity, length and quality, have created a record of the Second World War which is powerful, fascinating and unique. When war broke out, Nella's younger son joined the army while the rest of the family tried to adapt to civilian life. Writing each day for the "Mass Observation" project, Nella, a middle-aged housewife from the bombed town of Barrow, shows what people really felt during this time. This was the period in which she turned 50, saw her children leave home, and reviewed her life and her marriage - which she eventually compares to slavery. Her growing confidence as a result of her war work makes this a moving (though often comic) testimony, which, covering sex, death and fear of invasion, provides a new, unglamorised, female perspective on the war years.


Nella Last in the 1950s

Nella Last in the 1950s

Author: Patricia Malcolmson

Publisher: Profile Books

Published: 2010-10-07

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1847652867

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'I can never understand how the scribbles of such an ordinary person ... can possibly have value.' So wrote Nella Last in her diary on 2 September 1949. Sixty years on, tens of thousands of people have read and enjoyed the first two volumes of her uniquely detailed and moving diaries, written during World War II and its aftermath as part of the Mass Observation project, and the basis for BAFTA-winning drama Housewife 49 starring Victoria Wood. This third compelling volume sees Nella, now in her sixties, writing of what ordinary people felt during those years of growing prosperity in a modernising Britain. Her diary offers a detailed, moving and humorous narrative of daily life at a time that shaped the society we live in today. It is an account that's full of surprises as we learn more about her relationship with 'my husband' (never 'Will') and her fears of nuclear war. Outwardly Nella's life was commonplace; but behind this mask were a penetrating mind and a lively pen. As David Kynaston said on Radio 4, Nella Last 'will come to be seen as one of the major twentieth century English diarists.'


How to Be an American Housewife

How to Be an American Housewife

Author: Margaret Dilloway

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2010-08-05

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 110118924X

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A mother-daughter story about the strong pull of tradition, and the lure and cost of breaking free of it. When Shoko decided to marry an American GI and leave Japan, she had her parents' blessing, her brother's scorn, and a gift from her husband-a book on how to be a proper American housewife. As she crossed the ocean to America, Shoko also brought with her a secret she would need to keep her entire life... Half a century later, Shoko's plans to finally return to Japan and reconcile with her brother are derailed by illness. In her place, she sends her grown American daughter, Sue, a divorced single mother whose own life isn't what she hoped for. As Sue takes in Japan, with all its beauty and contradictions, she discovers another side to her mother and returns to America unexpectedly changed and irrevocably touched.


American Housewife

American Housewife

Author: Helen Ellis

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2016-01-12

Total Pages: 126

ISBN-13: 038554104X

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A raucous, whip-smart collection of stories featuring retro-feminist ladies who lunch.” —Elle Meet the women of American Housewife. They wear lipstick, pearls, and sunscreen, even when it’s cloudy. They casserole. They pinwheel. And then they kill a party crasher, carefully stepping around the body to pull cookies from the oven. Taking us from a haunted pre-war Manhattan apartment building to the unique initiation ritual of a book club, these twelve delightfully demented stories are a refreshing and wicked answer to the question: “What do housewives do all day?”


101 Things for The Housewife to Do in 1949

101 Things for The Housewife to Do in 1949

Author: Lillie B. Horth

Publisher: Anova Books

Published: 2007-09-28

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9780713490565

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A classic piece of 1940s publishing from B. T. Batsford (originally published 1949) reissued to inform and delight all readers about the housewife's lot as Britain emerged from the war.


A 1950s Housewife

A 1950s Housewife

Author: Sheila Hardy

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2015-10-05

Total Pages: 125

ISBN-13: 0750966920

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A nostalgic look at what it was like to be a housewife in the 1950sBeing a housewife in the 1950s was quite different than today. Women were expected to create a spotless home, delicious meals, and an inviting bedroom. From the perils of "courting" to the inevitable list of wedding gifts to the household tips that any self-respecting new wife should know, this book collects heartwarming personal anecdotes from women who embarked on married life during this fascinating post-war period, providing a trip down memory lane for any wife or child of the 1950s.


The Diaries of Nella Last

The Diaries of Nella Last

Author: Patricia Malcolmson

Publisher: Profile Books

Published: 2012-09-27

Total Pages: 531

ISBN-13: 1847658466

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The complete collection of the diaries of Nella Last 'I can never understand how the scribbles of such an ordinary person ... can possibly have value...' So wrote Nella Last in her diary on 2 September 1949. More than sixty years on, tens of thousands of people have read and enjoyed three volumes of her vivid and moving diaries, written during the Second World War and its aftermath as part of the Mass Observation project - and the basis for BAFTA-winning drama Housewife 49 starring Victoria Wood. The Diaries of Nella Last, brings together into a single volume the best of Nella's prolific outpourings, including a great deal of new, unpublished material from the war years. Capturing the everyday trials and horrors of wartime Britain and the nation's transition into peacetime and beyond, Nella's touching and often humorous narrative provides an invaluable historical portrait of what daily life was like for ordinary people in the 1940s and 1950s. Outwardly Nella's life was commonplace; but behind this mask were a penetrating mind and a lively pen. As David Kynaston said on Radio 4, Nella Last 'will come to be seen as one of the major twentieth century English diarists.'