The Post-war Diaries of Housewife 49'
Posted: 06 Jun 2012 09:31
A few years ago I read 'The Post-war Diaries of Housewife 49, Nella Last's War', and also saw the television production with Nella portrayed by Victoria Wood. While the book is not about Liverpool there are quite a few similarities in the way the dynamics of the family changed, the women gaining more say in their lives, gaining skills and jobs which had been out of their reach before.
Living in Barrow Nella took part in a Mass Observation project which started before WW11; she was a typical housewife who was struggling with the day to day changes and deprivation of wartime Britain, and how she shook off the shackles of a downtrodden housewife and doormat to her husband and sons. The highlight of her wartime was helping in a WVS shop and then opening a canteen for servicemen. This book covers 1939 to mid-1945.
I have just finished reading the second book of the series 'Nella Last's Peace' which gives an insight to post-war Britain and continues from mid-1945 to December 1948. I have learned of the struggles with the continued rationing which appears to be much harsher than during wartime. While Britain was burdened with a huge debt to America, Britain exported as much as possible to reduce the debt. We seldom hear of what it was like for the ordinary families. Clothes, fuel, petrol, food, especially meat were hard to acquire. The continuing struggle of Nella still trying to come to terms with the closure of the WVS shop and canteen, while at the same time fighting against her husbands' wish that she go back to the way things were before the war; he failed to recognise that the change was a permanent one. The military personnel being demobbed were returning home to find there were no jobs for them. Many, including Nella's son, emigrated to Australia where he later became a famous sculptor.
While not a riveting read, this is a good book to get a flavour of the day to day struggles of ordinary people in the north-west of England.
Nella continued writing her diaries even after the Mass Observation project finished, and there is a third book based on the 1950's where especially in Liverpool there was great poverty. Nella passed away in the 1960's before any of the content of her 480 diaries were in print. These diaries are lodged with the Mass Observation Archive in Sussex, and have formed the basis of many other research projects.
Sheila Davis
Living in Barrow Nella took part in a Mass Observation project which started before WW11; she was a typical housewife who was struggling with the day to day changes and deprivation of wartime Britain, and how she shook off the shackles of a downtrodden housewife and doormat to her husband and sons. The highlight of her wartime was helping in a WVS shop and then opening a canteen for servicemen. This book covers 1939 to mid-1945.
I have just finished reading the second book of the series 'Nella Last's Peace' which gives an insight to post-war Britain and continues from mid-1945 to December 1948. I have learned of the struggles with the continued rationing which appears to be much harsher than during wartime. While Britain was burdened with a huge debt to America, Britain exported as much as possible to reduce the debt. We seldom hear of what it was like for the ordinary families. Clothes, fuel, petrol, food, especially meat were hard to acquire. The continuing struggle of Nella still trying to come to terms with the closure of the WVS shop and canteen, while at the same time fighting against her husbands' wish that she go back to the way things were before the war; he failed to recognise that the change was a permanent one. The military personnel being demobbed were returning home to find there were no jobs for them. Many, including Nella's son, emigrated to Australia where he later became a famous sculptor.
While not a riveting read, this is a good book to get a flavour of the day to day struggles of ordinary people in the north-west of England.
Nella continued writing her diaries even after the Mass Observation project finished, and there is a third book based on the 1950's where especially in Liverpool there was great poverty. Nella passed away in the 1960's before any of the content of her 480 diaries were in print. These diaries are lodged with the Mass Observation Archive in Sussex, and have formed the basis of many other research projects.
Sheila Davis