As we reflect and try to restore ourselves over this Twixmas period, today I’d like to take you back to the winter of 1946/7, which my Nan reports as being one of the most severe on record: “It began snowing on Boxing Day and from then on, the temperature did not go above freezing until… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: winter reflection
As the coronavirus lockdown continues, and it becomes clear that it is having a disproportionate impact on the lives of women, with warnings of a regression back to the 1950s for many, I thought I’d look further at the actual experience of my nan in the 1950s, who was also bringing up small children around the same age as mine are now. The parallels are stark – particularly the burden of unpaid labour.
I remember my Nan talking to me about this next memory of the Second World War. As a child, it seemed so incredible and now as an adult it still remains unbelievable that this was a part of everyday life: “I am reminded vividly of an episode when I was on holiday at a farm… Continue reading Nan’s diary: The Doodlebugs
On a stranger Remembrance Sunday this year, I’m reading through Nan’s memories of corresponding with my grandad Les when he was posted to Burma during the Second World War. Often referred to as the Forgotten War, the Burma campaign dragged on long after Victory in Europe, in tough conditions far away from home. “I received… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: Burma – The Forgotten War
I thought the blog was long overdue another post from my nan’s memoirs, especially as we head into an uncertain winter. One of the parts about her reflections I find most fascinating is the voice she brings to women’s experiences of the Second World War, particularly when it relates to the path into adulthood and… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: Coming of Age
During lockdown, I’ve been enjoying ‘growing my own’ and have cultivated a decent vegetable garden! It made me reflect on food in the war years and how rationing must have affected people. Nan writes about this when recalling her recuperation from appendicitis back in London during the war: ‘It was while I was at home… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: Rationing
The Coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on many sectors, particularly the arts and heritage, where many museums and theatres are teetering on the brink of survival. Whilst reading through my Nan’s memoirs, recollections of how London theatre coped during the war years shows the importance of the arts in pulling people through the… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: Theatre in the war years
Although my nan and grandad knew each other, they had not yet got together at the time of VE Day in 1945. My nan was in London, whilst my grandad was travelling back from where he had been stationed in Burma, via South Africa. Nan doesn’t say a huge amount about VE Day in her… Continue reading Nan’s VE Day
Nan’s third billet during evacuation was with a girl called Jean and was ‘like jumping from the frying pan into the fire, as the food situation was so alien to us because my mother was an excellent cook and we always had smashing food at home; it was such a contrast to come to these… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: Evacuation – billet #3
When Nan got to Dorking, all the children were lined up outside the council offices so that they could be chosen by those agreeing to take evacuees in. She says: ‘Can you imagine people walking up and down to see which of the children they preferred? Some liked pretty little girls – that left me… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: Evacuation – billet #2
My Beautiful Diary of the Amazingly Mundane 