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Housewife, 49 #2
Nella Last's Peace: The Post-War Diaries of Housewife, 49
Nella Last's War established a housewife and mother from Barrow-in-Furness as one of the most powerful and moving voices of the Second World War, and inspired the award-winning television drama Housewife, 49. In this next instalment of her unique diaries, Nella Last describes how ordinary people re-built their lives after the war was over.
While the Allies' victory was a cause for hope and celebration, much privation and anxiety remained. 'The only peace is that there are no active hostilities,' Nella wrote, 'but the corrosion of the war years is eating deeper into civilisation.' In her sensitive and playful account of daily life in the austerity years, written like her war diaries for the Mass Observation project, Nella Last captures the thoughts and feelings of post-war Britain.
'If the historians could see clearly enough, this could well be called the age of frustration ... after all, for ordinary people, it's the little things that count, whether for good or ill.' Nella Last
While the Allies' victory was a cause for hope and celebration, much privation and anxiety remained. 'The only peace is that there are no active hostilities,' Nella wrote, 'but the corrosion of the war years is eating deeper into civilisation.' In her sensitive and playful account of daily life in the austerity years, written like her war diaries for the Mass Observation project, Nella Last captures the thoughts and feelings of post-war Britain.
'If the historians could see clearly enough, this could well be called the age of frustration ... after all, for ordinary people, it's the little things that count, whether for good or ill.' Nella Last
305 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
38 people are currently reading
701 people want to read
About the author
Nella Last
4 books32 followersNella Last was a wife and mother who wrote up her day-to-day experience of civilian life in the Second World War as part of the Mass-Observation Archive, which was set up by sociologist Charles Madge and anthropologist Tom Harrisson to record ordinary people's views on contemporary events. She was an intelligent woman, who was stifled by her life and repressive marriage in a provincial place. Fortunately, she had two escape routes from depression: her writing and her work with the Women's Volunteer Service. She began the diary in 1937 and kept it up longer than most and writing more than everyone else. It was finally published in 1981. Nella died in 1968, so never lived to see her wartime diaries published.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
April 19, 2019
I really enjoyed this! Nella was part of a program that asked for volunteers to write diaries about their daily lives. And did she ever! For 27 years! From 1939 until 1966. This book has compiled excerpts from the diaries of August 1945 through December 1948. Earlier diaries were featured in another book Nella Last's War.
She puts down her thoughts, and feelings, with a very skilful hand. It's not a boring diary ... far from it. While she captures the events ... births, deaths, illnesses ... of her life, she also takes us inside her mind, and heart. She doesn't hold back, and she's up-front about all aspects of her life.
She often feels she is a bit 'different' from other folks, but I think most of us have felt that way, at times. It's obvious she is an astute judge of character, and a deep thinker. It was interesting to realise that a 1940s British woman often had the same exact thoughts I've had! It made me feel a bit less alone, or less 'different', I suppose.
If you like reading about ordinary folks in post-WWII Britain, you'll love this. If you like reading a woman's perspective on her life, you'll love this, too. I did.
4 Stars = Outstanding. It definitely held my interest.
She puts down her thoughts, and feelings, with a very skilful hand. It's not a boring diary ... far from it. While she captures the events ... births, deaths, illnesses ... of her life, she also takes us inside her mind, and heart. She doesn't hold back, and she's up-front about all aspects of her life.
She often feels she is a bit 'different' from other folks, but I think most of us have felt that way, at times. It's obvious she is an astute judge of character, and a deep thinker. It was interesting to realise that a 1940s British woman often had the same exact thoughts I've had! It made me feel a bit less alone, or less 'different', I suppose.
If you like reading about ordinary folks in post-WWII Britain, you'll love this. If you like reading a woman's perspective on her life, you'll love this, too. I did.
4 Stars = Outstanding. It definitely held my interest.
March 5, 2012
It's hard to assess this book on it's own as opposed to comparing it to Nella Last's War (which I loved). This was a great continuation of Nella's story - the difficult times post war, the challenges with her husband and with life in general. In some ways, these post war years were harder on Nella than the war itself. During the war she was busy and needed outside the home. She built relationships with other women and the soldiers that came into the canteen, she ran the Red Cross efforts and the charity shop. Everyone was rallying together for a common cause - all saying that everything will be better when the war ends. But after the war there was even more shortages, more rationing, more economizing and much less of a rallying spirit. It's also interesting to read some of her thoughts about America and the resentment that was probably common in Britain at that time that we didn't get into the war soon enough and then didn't have any of the shortages to deal with after. Reading this next installment of Nella's story was like reconnecting with an old friend. Definitely a must read for anyone who enjoyed her war time diaries but not one to read as a stand alone book.
June 30, 2025
Nella Last was one of the many participants in the UK's social research project known as Mass Observation, established in 1937 and covers the years through the early 50's. This book's diary entries cover the post WWII years from August 1945 through December 1948. (Three of her diaries have been published, and one - years 1944-1945 went missing.)
Nella lived in, and the community about which she wrote, was Barrow-in-Furness, on the west coast of England in the region often referred to as Cumbria. Her husband Will, and her two sons Arthur and Cliff, and all the neighbors and community members fill her pages with their activities from 1939 when she started writing in response to the government's call for participants in this project until two years before her death in 1968.
This is a true, day-by-day happening diary with Nella engaging in a genuine conversation with her unknown reader. She dares the reader to judge her, and often provides the reasons and why-fors of her choices and conclusions. She has plenty of Big Opinions on all aspects of her life (and the life of others), especially on her interactions with her closest family members.
The editors provide endpapers, maps, photographs, footnotes explaining colloquial references and slang, as well as a very helpful list of characters. I'm not an avid diary reader as I find them very unreliable. As creatures hot off the press of instant emotion they are suspect, and Nella's is no different. Nella understood that this was being prepared for authentic record-keeping purposes, so there is an aspect of performance art here, even a little indulging in her own bully pulpit, and party propaganda purposes - participation being evidence of loyalty (or not). Still she doesn't pull punches when she feels moved to grumble on imposed rules and regs.
Mostly this reader became acquainted with, and a fan of Nella Last. She mentions she didn't believe in heaven. . .but rather:
'I've always had a strong belief in life going on,' she wrote on 28 February 1950, 'not a Heaven where there is singing and walking by green pastures, but somewhere where we got the chances we threw away, or never had, to grow.'
4 stars for fervent hope that Nella's post-earthly options are growing bigger than jack's beanstalks ever did!
25|52:50c
Nella lived in, and the community about which she wrote, was Barrow-in-Furness, on the west coast of England in the region often referred to as Cumbria. Her husband Will, and her two sons Arthur and Cliff, and all the neighbors and community members fill her pages with their activities from 1939 when she started writing in response to the government's call for participants in this project until two years before her death in 1968.
This is a true, day-by-day happening diary with Nella engaging in a genuine conversation with her unknown reader. She dares the reader to judge her, and often provides the reasons and why-fors of her choices and conclusions. She has plenty of Big Opinions on all aspects of her life (and the life of others), especially on her interactions with her closest family members.
The editors provide endpapers, maps, photographs, footnotes explaining colloquial references and slang, as well as a very helpful list of characters. I'm not an avid diary reader as I find them very unreliable. As creatures hot off the press of instant emotion they are suspect, and Nella's is no different. Nella understood that this was being prepared for authentic record-keeping purposes, so there is an aspect of performance art here, even a little indulging in her own bully pulpit, and party propaganda purposes - participation being evidence of loyalty (or not). Still she doesn't pull punches when she feels moved to grumble on imposed rules and regs.
Mostly this reader became acquainted with, and a fan of Nella Last. She mentions she didn't believe in heaven. . .but rather:
'I've always had a strong belief in life going on,' she wrote on 28 February 1950, 'not a Heaven where there is singing and walking by green pastures, but somewhere where we got the chances we threw away, or never had, to grow.'
4 stars for fervent hope that Nella's post-earthly options are growing bigger than jack's beanstalks ever did!
25|52:50c
February 21, 2015
Nella Last would have been the first to tell you that she was just an "ordinary woman." I beg to differ. The life that her time put her in might have been filled with how to find a "nice bit of fish" in order to feed herself and her husband, and how to tend to her home in between power cuts, but her ability to express her feelings, thoughts and wishes can only be described as extraordinary.
Mrs. Last wrote diaries for the Mass Observation programme that started just before the Second World War and continued on into the 1950s. She wrote for M.O. and for herself, though it's hard to imagine that when you read the brilliant prose that presents itself as part of her everyday life. She comments on the troubles of the soldiers coming home, and of the wives who are getting reacquainted with these strangers coming back to them after five years. She discusses her own marital disharmony and her occasional outbursts in which she tells those who are taking advantage of her just where to get off. She tells riveting stories of being called to assist when the chimney next door catches fire or the niece of a friend has a breakdown. She writes all of this for herself, but it reads as if it were meant, from the moment it left her pen, for publication. She could have had no idea that that's what was going to happen.
Amusingly, she refers to her writing at one point, saying, in effect, that if she'd gone a different route, she'd have ended up writing a few books by 1947. Here I am in 2015, reading the second of two books revolving entirely around her M.O. diaries. I hope that she's aware of and pleased by that.
Mrs. Last wrote diaries for the Mass Observation programme that started just before the Second World War and continued on into the 1950s. She wrote for M.O. and for herself, though it's hard to imagine that when you read the brilliant prose that presents itself as part of her everyday life. She comments on the troubles of the soldiers coming home, and of the wives who are getting reacquainted with these strangers coming back to them after five years. She discusses her own marital disharmony and her occasional outbursts in which she tells those who are taking advantage of her just where to get off. She tells riveting stories of being called to assist when the chimney next door catches fire or the niece of a friend has a breakdown. She writes all of this for herself, but it reads as if it were meant, from the moment it left her pen, for publication. She could have had no idea that that's what was going to happen.
Amusingly, she refers to her writing at one point, saying, in effect, that if she'd gone a different route, she'd have ended up writing a few books by 1947. Here I am in 2015, reading the second of two books revolving entirely around her M.O. diaries. I hope that she's aware of and pleased by that.
August 31, 2010
I've already raved about Nella Last's War. By the end of that book I felt I knew Nella and longed to meet her. So this selection from her post-war diaries made me sad, as if I was reading a letter from a friend going through a bad patch. In November 1946:
In January 1948, she wrote:
Nella lives a sadly limited life after the war, struggling with rationing and queues, dealing with bouts of ill-health (probably stress-related), an emotionally dependent husband, and demanding in-laws. She desperately needs to feel useful, and with her sons gone out into the world often feels frustrated and lost. Despite the difficulties she is still able to show her warm heart and generosity to others in trying circumstances. I'm sure the literally millions of words she wrote over the years, often late at night in bed, must have helped to keep her sane, even though she shared them only with Mass Observation. That was probably one reason why she had little sense of her talent:
So she got her wish, but I wish she'd lived to see the pleasure her words would give to others. She is a superb, compassionate and perceptive writer, surely one of the greatest British diarists of the 20th century.
There seems to have been more editorial intervention in this book than in the previous one (different editors) with more determination to highlight specific themes; I felt this was a bit of a shame, as they skipped some episodes I'd like to have read, such as Nella's visit to her son in Belfast to see her longed-for first grandchild, and probably also made Nella's life with her husband sound more miserable than it actually was.
I stood amongst the women waiting to be served. Well dressed or otherwise, they all had one thing in common -- a kind of look in their eyes and compressed-looking mouths, as if they had closed them tightly at times to keep back sharp words of irritation. I was covertly watching their faces through a little strip of mirror, rather badly lit, and one mouth looked particularly set. I looked again at the bit of chin that showed above a row of tinned pears, feeling pity as I thought, "You do look repressed and irritable" ... I recognised it for my own mouth, and wondered, "Do I often look like that?"
In January 1948, she wrote:
I thought of the greetings of other years, even war years, at Hospital Supply. We set our faces against drabness and clinging to old customs of happier days was one little gesture, even in the darkest days. I sighed as I thought the so-called peace was robbing us of things that war never did. I often look back on the war years personally and think of the exhilaration that filled my veins like potent wine, carrying me over rough places ... giving me courage to do whatever came along.
Nella lives a sadly limited life after the war, struggling with rationing and queues, dealing with bouts of ill-health (probably stress-related), an emotionally dependent husband, and demanding in-laws. She desperately needs to feel useful, and with her sons gone out into the world often feels frustrated and lost. Despite the difficulties she is still able to show her warm heart and generosity to others in trying circumstances. I'm sure the literally millions of words she wrote over the years, often late at night in bed, must have helped to keep her sane, even though she shared them only with Mass Observation. That was probably one reason why she had little sense of her talent:
Of all gifts I crave, that of "expression" would be my dearest wish. ... If I could put it all in written language and sequence, I could write books, I'm sure. Maybe I'll get my wish in some future reincarnation!"
So she got her wish, but I wish she'd lived to see the pleasure her words would give to others. She is a superb, compassionate and perceptive writer, surely one of the greatest British diarists of the 20th century.
There seems to have been more editorial intervention in this book than in the previous one (different editors) with more determination to highlight specific themes; I felt this was a bit of a shame, as they skipped some episodes I'd like to have read, such as Nella's visit to her son in Belfast to see her longed-for first grandchild, and probably also made Nella's life with her husband sound more miserable than it actually was.
July 5, 2017
This is a sad coda to Nella's story. Having been so busy and active and useful during the war, Nella's life was a hard slog in the post war years.
I am giving this a lower rating not because of that, but because of the poor editing. While the first book allowed readers to hear Nella's voice with few editorial comments, here the editors constantly break into the diaries with comments, and instead of giving us the diaries, they give us quotations and leave out large chunks. Perhaps they had to cut things for space, but it makes the book sadly disjointed.
I am giving this a lower rating not because of that, but because of the poor editing. While the first book allowed readers to hear Nella's voice with few editorial comments, here the editors constantly break into the diaries with comments, and instead of giving us the diaries, they give us quotations and leave out large chunks. Perhaps they had to cut things for space, but it makes the book sadly disjointed.
December 8, 2021
An important piece of social history and the woman can write... maybe I’m biased but think not. My brother was born two streets away, two years after this volume ends. I wasn’t far behind and, in the light of this, happy to be Barrow born. Not a pretty town but a very real one.
...and Nella is wonderful.
...and Nella is wonderful.
August 8, 2021
Nice soothing read during lockdown. A reminder that things have been much worse, not just because of the war but the narrow restricted world for most women.
December 26, 2014
[Audiobook version]
The feel of this was quite different to Nella Last's War. Stylistically, there was a lot more editing -- although as the editors point out, Nella Last wrote millions of words in her lifetime, so they had to prune quite heavily. Scenes are introduced with a sentence (e.g. "Nella loved visiting the Lake District with her husband" followed by a passage from her diary, detailing a day out at the Lakes) and although I understand why this was necessary, it did create a feeling of distance.
Emotionally, this chapter of Nella's life was a lot bleaker. Without the impetus of her war work to give her life purpose and enjoyment, Nella seemed wearier and more depressed. She talks about her nerves bothering her, and there's a poignant scene in a grocer's shop where she observes the queue of women in a little strip of mirror above the products. One mouth, she notes, is particularly down-turned, and she wonders who this miserable woman is... before realising it is, of course, herself.
There's also the story of a new friend of Nella's, a young woman called Jessie who, at 34, is considered old for a first-time mother. She develops post-natal depression after her baby girl is born (not that it's ever referred to as PND) and her husband eventually takes her to what Nella describes as a "mental home". Jessie undergoes electroconvulsive shock therapy and returns home after three months, and is reunited with her daughter, who had been cared for by her mother. Maybe it's silly of me to have felt so affected by this story, given that it happened nearly seventy years ago, but I was genuinely anxious to know how things turned out for Jessie and her baby, given the none too happy endings for a lot of women with mental illness back then.
Despite the grim realities of life after the war -- rationing continued for years, of course, and the nation was nearly bankrupt and struggling to rebuild itself -- there were moments of hope, of love and happiness. I particularly loved the narrator -- her warm voice was comforting to listen to and I felt as if I were an old friend being taken into her confidences.
I did think this ended rather suddenly, and without any real sense of tying up endings. But apart from feeling slightly confused as I fumbled around trying to find the next CD, this didn't bother me too much, as I have Nella Last in the 1950s lined up and ready to go.
The feel of this was quite different to Nella Last's War. Stylistically, there was a lot more editing -- although as the editors point out, Nella Last wrote millions of words in her lifetime, so they had to prune quite heavily. Scenes are introduced with a sentence (e.g. "Nella loved visiting the Lake District with her husband" followed by a passage from her diary, detailing a day out at the Lakes) and although I understand why this was necessary, it did create a feeling of distance.
Emotionally, this chapter of Nella's life was a lot bleaker. Without the impetus of her war work to give her life purpose and enjoyment, Nella seemed wearier and more depressed. She talks about her nerves bothering her, and there's a poignant scene in a grocer's shop where she observes the queue of women in a little strip of mirror above the products. One mouth, she notes, is particularly down-turned, and she wonders who this miserable woman is... before realising it is, of course, herself.
There's also the story of a new friend of Nella's, a young woman called Jessie who, at 34, is considered old for a first-time mother. She develops post-natal depression after her baby girl is born (not that it's ever referred to as PND) and her husband eventually takes her to what Nella describes as a "mental home". Jessie undergoes electroconvulsive shock therapy and returns home after three months, and is reunited with her daughter, who had been cared for by her mother. Maybe it's silly of me to have felt so affected by this story, given that it happened nearly seventy years ago, but I was genuinely anxious to know how things turned out for Jessie and her baby, given the none too happy endings for a lot of women with mental illness back then.
Despite the grim realities of life after the war -- rationing continued for years, of course, and the nation was nearly bankrupt and struggling to rebuild itself -- there were moments of hope, of love and happiness. I particularly loved the narrator -- her warm voice was comforting to listen to and I felt as if I were an old friend being taken into her confidences.
I did think this ended rather suddenly, and without any real sense of tying up endings. But apart from feeling slightly confused as I fumbled around trying to find the next CD, this didn't bother me too much, as I have Nella Last in the 1950s lined up and ready to go.
December 27, 2014
It was wonderful to pick up from where I left off at the end of Nella Last's War - VJ Day August 14th, 1945 - when I opened the pages of Nella Last's Peace. There was something very comforting about the continuation, so I didn't feel as if I'd missed any of Nella's little world and life in Barrow and the goings on with her family and friends.
You can expect more of the same wonderful prose (expertly edited) and humourous, gossipy, emotive and reflective insights, observations, thoughts, feelings and interactions as Nella shares her life with us. The war might well be over, but the fight to establish a positioning in the new world and the battle for housewives to provide for their families despite rationing, rages on. Life is still hard and Nella often reflects on the camaraderie of the war years and how it kept them all going.
What I love about Nella's writing is that she is brutally honest in her diary entries and she seems ultra sensitive to the happenings of everyday life.
Two beautiful quotes to illustrate this:
"We are all in the melting pot of history, and that's always hurting. The best part of history is to read it out of books when things get more in focus..."
"It's so ghastly to think that people who fight, endure and suffer are not the ones to begin wars, and are so helpless to stop them. Only if people's minds and hearts could unite and change, only if we all could unite in a single purpose of personal responsibility to each other, to life in general, towards people we know exist but never see, to teach little children the beauty of peace and concord, how to agree with each other, share things - and laugh - can simple forthright peace come."
When I got to the end, I felt like I'd lost an old friend, a very dear, wise old friend. So imagine my delight when I discovered there's a third and final installment of Nella's diary entries written through the 1950s.
Guess what I've just ordered on Amazon...
You can expect more of the same wonderful prose (expertly edited) and humourous, gossipy, emotive and reflective insights, observations, thoughts, feelings and interactions as Nella shares her life with us. The war might well be over, but the fight to establish a positioning in the new world and the battle for housewives to provide for their families despite rationing, rages on. Life is still hard and Nella often reflects on the camaraderie of the war years and how it kept them all going.
What I love about Nella's writing is that she is brutally honest in her diary entries and she seems ultra sensitive to the happenings of everyday life.
Two beautiful quotes to illustrate this:
"We are all in the melting pot of history, and that's always hurting. The best part of history is to read it out of books when things get more in focus..."
"It's so ghastly to think that people who fight, endure and suffer are not the ones to begin wars, and are so helpless to stop them. Only if people's minds and hearts could unite and change, only if we all could unite in a single purpose of personal responsibility to each other, to life in general, towards people we know exist but never see, to teach little children the beauty of peace and concord, how to agree with each other, share things - and laugh - can simple forthright peace come."
When I got to the end, I felt like I'd lost an old friend, a very dear, wise old friend. So imagine my delight when I discovered there's a third and final installment of Nella's diary entries written through the 1950s.
Guess what I've just ordered on Amazon...
February 15, 2011
During WWII Great Britain formed an organization, called Mass Observation, to help monitor the average citizen's response to the war. They put ads in newspapers that asked people to submit diary entries on a regular basis. Nella Last, 49 years old at the time, started writing a diary for this group.
Years later her diary entries were found and compiled into several books. This is one of them. There was a movie, Housewife, 49, based on her experiences during the war (based on the book Nella Last's War), and this book is based on her peacetime diaries.
Simply put, her writing is beautiful, as well as her transformation from a woman trapped in a marriage to a very stern man, to a woman who finds self-actualization through volunteer work. She gains a sense of purpose and love of life, while she continued to pride in her home and family life.
I was surprised by how difficult life in Britain continued to be after the war was over. Rationing was still enforced, housing was scarce and there was very little work for men returning from the war. Also surprising was the bitter attitude toward American and the sense that "she didn't suffer the hardship we did and should help more."
I love books full of domestic life and this one is full of them. Wonderful.
Years later her diary entries were found and compiled into several books. This is one of them. There was a movie, Housewife, 49, based on her experiences during the war (based on the book Nella Last's War), and this book is based on her peacetime diaries.
Simply put, her writing is beautiful, as well as her transformation from a woman trapped in a marriage to a very stern man, to a woman who finds self-actualization through volunteer work. She gains a sense of purpose and love of life, while she continued to pride in her home and family life.
I was surprised by how difficult life in Britain continued to be after the war was over. Rationing was still enforced, housing was scarce and there was very little work for men returning from the war. Also surprising was the bitter attitude toward American and the sense that "she didn't suffer the hardship we did and should help more."
I love books full of domestic life and this one is full of them. Wonderful.
April 30, 2020
Nella Last's War was a better book, but I may have preferred reading the diary of an ordinary woman living in England during WWII. I discovered many things about the aftermath of WWII that I did not know. Shortages went on for so many years; and I was surprised to discover how deeply unsettled Nella and her neighbors/friends were following the war. During the war they were focused on making ends meet, helping each other, and volunteering for the war effort. Afterwards they lost purpose. Women who had filled men's jobs during the war went back to the home, but their lives would never return to what they were.
This was the mid to late 40s, a time of great social upheaval, but I'd never read this particular perspective. Nella Last's diaries from 1937 and beyond were part of the Mass Observation. Housewife #49 was among many who were encouraged to maintain a diary of their everyday lives. Polls and surveys had barely begun. What an ordinary citizen experienced and felt was little known.
The perspective, content, context and length of time Nella maintained her diary is unlike reading third person accounts. I may continue to read her account of the 50s.
This was the mid to late 40s, a time of great social upheaval, but I'd never read this particular perspective. Nella Last's diaries from 1937 and beyond were part of the Mass Observation. Housewife #49 was among many who were encouraged to maintain a diary of their everyday lives. Polls and surveys had barely begun. What an ordinary citizen experienced and felt was little known.
The perspective, content, context and length of time Nella maintained her diary is unlike reading third person accounts. I may continue to read her account of the 50s.
June 5, 2016
A truly fascinating account of life in postwar Britain. After the hardship of war, peacetime was not all that people thought it would be. Nella's observations of her daily life, and her family and neighbours, reveal there was just as much upheaval and trauma in the aftermath of the hostilities. Soldiers return home and find their families to be strangers, one young neighbour suffers what would now be diagnosed as PND after the birth of her first child and gets bundled off to an asylum, Nella's son returns from the war and decides to emigrate to Australia, and everyday activities like buying food and clothes remain epic challenges. But had I not known the years she was writing in, so many of her observations about society, human nature, politics and, sadly, even racism, could have been written today. It makes you wonder how far we have really come. Despite this, her writing is playful and sensitive, and I found it utterly compelling to read. Sad at times, but still witty, detailed and touching.
July 14, 2023
This is the second book in the series of the Nella Last Diaries and covers the post war years of ‘Housewife, 49’.
In this next instalment, Nella describes a society that is trying to adapt to a post-war Britain. With issues such as rationing set to continue in Britain into the 1950’s, families being reunited after the demobilisation of the British Armed Forces and the dislocation of lives, Nella often writes about the ‘age of frustration’.
In Nella Last’s War, we saw Nella grow from an often sickly woman who had been plagued by a breakdown, to one who had purpose and thrived as a member of the WVS. But with relations still strained between her husband and herself, the daily absence of her two sons (Arthur who lived in Belfast and Cliff who was still serving in the army) and her worry about her ‘purpose’ in life with the pending termination of the WVS, we once again see Nella troubled by illness and fatigue.
As with the first instalment of her diary, I thoroughly enjoyed Nella Last’s Peace and look forward to reading the concluding book.
In this next instalment, Nella describes a society that is trying to adapt to a post-war Britain. With issues such as rationing set to continue in Britain into the 1950’s, families being reunited after the demobilisation of the British Armed Forces and the dislocation of lives, Nella often writes about the ‘age of frustration’.
In Nella Last’s War, we saw Nella grow from an often sickly woman who had been plagued by a breakdown, to one who had purpose and thrived as a member of the WVS. But with relations still strained between her husband and herself, the daily absence of her two sons (Arthur who lived in Belfast and Cliff who was still serving in the army) and her worry about her ‘purpose’ in life with the pending termination of the WVS, we once again see Nella troubled by illness and fatigue.
As with the first instalment of her diary, I thoroughly enjoyed Nella Last’s Peace and look forward to reading the concluding book.
April 7, 2017
This could have been as good as Nella Last's War except that it is edited by different people who seemed to want to focus on the mundane boring bits of her life. I could have screamed in frustration every time Nella did something like go to London, only to find that they summed it up in a few words and went back to the entries where she told us what she had made for lunch, what she had done in the garden, and why her husband was getting on her nerves. I don't think that editors should have such an agenda. There obviously were interesting things going on and it is not fair on the readers to omit them. This book should be reissued with different editors in charge, so we hear about her ongoing relationship with her son Cliff, (who became a celebrated sculptor later in life) and what became of various people that she knew in the town.
December 4, 2008
I read it for research, but enjoyed it as much as a novel. She was a diarist during and after WWII and was a very accessible and perceptive writer. It follow's Nella Last's War. Both are brilliant
February 17, 2022
My absolute favorite kind of book! One about not much and told exquisitely.
This remarkable diary of a day-in-the-life of a working class British Housewife in a small NW English ship-building city in the immediate aftermath of WWII offers a fulsome account of how Nella Last spends her all-day-every-days dusting and vaccing, creatively cobbling together endless meals and baking for her thankless, dullard husband (and extended family and neighbors in need), her daily pursuit of rationed goods--be they food or clothes--tailoring and mending and occasionally carving out time for happily making "dollies" for the annual Hospital bizarre (without doubt an artistic outlet), and the very local gossip and goings on of her neighbors, family (loved and tolerated), friends and former co-workers that she volunteered with at the WVS Canteen (Women's Voluntary Services) during the war and shortly thereafter. EVERYTHING she writes is supremely engaging, sensitively observed, exquisitely but sparely described, and 100% authentic. It is a miracle of writing about the most mundane hours of a day.
Joy in making a difference in people's lives is Nella's raison d'etre. These pages chronicle besides the routine life of a devoted housewife, her frustration/sadness/emptiness now that the Canteen is closing, and almost all women's wartime work is displaced by the return of men from the War who need jobs (Nella would have been a CEO or at least head of HR were she a woman of the 21 century). Nella's keenly felt disappointment and frequent despair at no longer feeling herself able to make a difference or be "useful" is the thrumming, bleak cloud she continually strives to get out from under. In the face of this, she finds rejuvenation and quiet joy in the hills and lakes just outside of town and in the nature of her garden. And in the cherished moments of simple friendship and kinship with those around her. Her ability to find happiness and fulfillment, however brief, in the smallest things starkly highlights how most of us go through our days without reflection, fully feeling or seeing what is before us and the value of what we are doing. The potential for beauty and the possibility for the least thing to have a profound impact on one's soul, however briefly, is the delight of this book.
Nella's moods fluctuate frequently and her health ebbs and flows, but she is a resolute optimist and dedicated wife, mother and friend, so devoted to seeing the best in circumstances and people without ever stooping to Polly Anna-ism. The success of her balancing act really drew my breath. The immediacy of Nella's descriptions made me feel like I lived life with her for the days I spent reading her book. And the full beauty of it was the commonality of every human life, and the astonishing degree to which the world and its wars and prejudices and disappointments and high points in life and across cultures and societies, has not changed an iota. Life is life, and on it goes, careless of who is living it. Nella Last is a gorgeous documentarian, capable of demonstrating that all that is simply and honestly observed is sacred.
What a rare and gifted writer who never got to publicly share her gift.
This remarkable diary of a day-in-the-life of a working class British Housewife in a small NW English ship-building city in the immediate aftermath of WWII offers a fulsome account of how Nella Last spends her all-day-every-days dusting and vaccing, creatively cobbling together endless meals and baking for her thankless, dullard husband (and extended family and neighbors in need), her daily pursuit of rationed goods--be they food or clothes--tailoring and mending and occasionally carving out time for happily making "dollies" for the annual Hospital bizarre (without doubt an artistic outlet), and the very local gossip and goings on of her neighbors, family (loved and tolerated), friends and former co-workers that she volunteered with at the WVS Canteen (Women's Voluntary Services) during the war and shortly thereafter. EVERYTHING she writes is supremely engaging, sensitively observed, exquisitely but sparely described, and 100% authentic. It is a miracle of writing about the most mundane hours of a day.
Joy in making a difference in people's lives is Nella's raison d'etre. These pages chronicle besides the routine life of a devoted housewife, her frustration/sadness/emptiness now that the Canteen is closing, and almost all women's wartime work is displaced by the return of men from the War who need jobs (Nella would have been a CEO or at least head of HR were she a woman of the 21 century). Nella's keenly felt disappointment and frequent despair at no longer feeling herself able to make a difference or be "useful" is the thrumming, bleak cloud she continually strives to get out from under. In the face of this, she finds rejuvenation and quiet joy in the hills and lakes just outside of town and in the nature of her garden. And in the cherished moments of simple friendship and kinship with those around her. Her ability to find happiness and fulfillment, however brief, in the smallest things starkly highlights how most of us go through our days without reflection, fully feeling or seeing what is before us and the value of what we are doing. The potential for beauty and the possibility for the least thing to have a profound impact on one's soul, however briefly, is the delight of this book.
Nella's moods fluctuate frequently and her health ebbs and flows, but she is a resolute optimist and dedicated wife, mother and friend, so devoted to seeing the best in circumstances and people without ever stooping to Polly Anna-ism. The success of her balancing act really drew my breath. The immediacy of Nella's descriptions made me feel like I lived life with her for the days I spent reading her book. And the full beauty of it was the commonality of every human life, and the astonishing degree to which the world and its wars and prejudices and disappointments and high points in life and across cultures and societies, has not changed an iota. Life is life, and on it goes, careless of who is living it. Nella Last is a gorgeous documentarian, capable of demonstrating that all that is simply and honestly observed is sacred.
What a rare and gifted writer who never got to publicly share her gift.
October 12, 2018
I was so happy to return to Nella Last's wonderful diary that she kept for the Mass Observation project. This is the second volume of her posthumously published diaries, and covers the years immediately after the end of WWII. The war years had seen Nella blossom, as she cast off the restrictions of her repressive marriage and immersed herself in volunteer work for the war effort. The post-war years were gloomy for Nella. She missed her volunteer work, struggled in her marriage, faced rationing even more severe than during the war, and frequently suffered from ill-health and depression. She worried about her sons, as unemployment was high after the war, and young men were having a difficult time transitioning from wartime service to post-war careers. The world political situation also worried her, as nations struggled to rebuild after the war, the Cold War began, and the threat of nuclear war loomed. Her analysis of these situations is very astute, revealing a remarkable intelligence. While there have been countless books written about the war, there has been much less written about the immediate post-war years, and Nella's detailed first-hand account of life in her small town in Northern England is fascinating. It amazes me the sheer volume that she wrote, obviously finding her writing therapeutic. She had always aspired to be a writer, musing that in some future reincarnation she might write books. My one complaint is with the editing. The diaries have been edited for clarity and flow, which is fine, but large sections of her writing are skipped over and summarized by the editors. I do understand the reason at times, but they have done this with some significant events that I would much rather hear in Nella's own words, as these summaries do not allow us to see her reactions and emotions. There was much less of this heavy-handed editing in the first book, which I think allowed the reader to connect more personally with this remarkable woman. I look forward to reading the final volume, and hope that the editors allow Nella to tell her own story.
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August 31, 2011Nella Last’s Peace, by Robert and Patricia Malcolmson, Narrated by Carole Boyd, Produced by BBC Audio Books, downloaded from audible.com.
Nella Last's War introduced us to a housewife and mother from Barrow-in-Furness, who began a journal in 1939 for the Mass Observation Project-a research project collecting information on people’s daily lives. Unlike most of the diarists, Nella kept her diary sending in weekly accounts from 1939 to 1966. She had always wanted to be a writer, and in these journals, edited parts of her full journal which takes volumes and which is in a museum with no one having read all of it, she gives us a unique and moving picture of England at this time. In this next installment of her edited journals, Nella Last describes how ordinary people rebuilt their lives after the war was over. While the Allies' victory was a cause for hope and celebration, much anxiety remained. Nella tells us that, while the war years were difficult, there was camaraderie and purpose in helping each other out, providing services both for the men at war and for people at home. But in this journal, covering the years 1946 through 1948, she tells how the country now seems steeped in depression as does Nella seem to be herself. We learn how the volunteer services necessary and provided by women during the war are no longer necessary and are closed down. So the women go back home, but now with a taste for doing things outside of the home. The men come home and can’t find jobs. She finds her husband difficult to live with because he is still so tied to his mother who Nella has never liked. Carole Boyd is the perfect narrator for the three edited journals from Nella Last’s writings. She reads them with an intimacy that makes you feel as if you’re in Nella’s living room having a good gossip with her.
Nella Last's War introduced us to a housewife and mother from Barrow-in-Furness, who began a journal in 1939 for the Mass Observation Project-a research project collecting information on people’s daily lives. Unlike most of the diarists, Nella kept her diary sending in weekly accounts from 1939 to 1966. She had always wanted to be a writer, and in these journals, edited parts of her full journal which takes volumes and which is in a museum with no one having read all of it, she gives us a unique and moving picture of England at this time. In this next installment of her edited journals, Nella Last describes how ordinary people rebuilt their lives after the war was over. While the Allies' victory was a cause for hope and celebration, much anxiety remained. Nella tells us that, while the war years were difficult, there was camaraderie and purpose in helping each other out, providing services both for the men at war and for people at home. But in this journal, covering the years 1946 through 1948, she tells how the country now seems steeped in depression as does Nella seem to be herself. We learn how the volunteer services necessary and provided by women during the war are no longer necessary and are closed down. So the women go back home, but now with a taste for doing things outside of the home. The men come home and can’t find jobs. She finds her husband difficult to live with because he is still so tied to his mother who Nella has never liked. Carole Boyd is the perfect narrator for the three edited journals from Nella Last’s writings. She reads them with an intimacy that makes you feel as if you’re in Nella’s living room having a good gossip with her.
March 19, 2013
Nella begins with post war messages. There are POW walking around under guard but later the guards are taken off and the POW are wandering around alone.
Though her neighbours still hate the Germans Nella finds them polite and very unlike the Poles who appear rude and uncaring.
Food is still scarce and the richer women seem to be getting clothes and food.
In 1948 the health service starts and no one seems to know who is to get what what. The local hospital is still in debt and needs her toys.
The WVS is to continue but Nella and her friends seem left out by the women who wanted to run it without a committee.
The young woman next door having a first baby at 34 has had no husband at home for seven years due to war service. The poor lady goes into post natal depression (her illness is not given a name in the book) Her husband has to find someone to look after the baby and take his wife to a hospital in Lancaster and sign her in.
Nella keeps in touch writing her little notes and telling her what is going on at home - later these become the lady's lifeline.
Eventually her husband has to sign for her to have ECT (elecric shock treatment). After months she recovers.
This description should be read by non-believers in "Post Natal Depression".
Nella's father and mother in law become aged and senile. This has to be dealt with. Most falls to Nella.
She continually plans on emigrating to Australia to join her son Cliff but never goes. Cliff becomes a well known sculptor in Australia.
Her husband gives up his wood yard in 1950 and Nella lives till 1968.
This book is not as interesting as the diary based on the war years but is an excellent history.
I think without her diary to talk to while she was writing Nella would not have coped.
Though her neighbours still hate the Germans Nella finds them polite and very unlike the Poles who appear rude and uncaring.
Food is still scarce and the richer women seem to be getting clothes and food.
In 1948 the health service starts and no one seems to know who is to get what what. The local hospital is still in debt and needs her toys.
The WVS is to continue but Nella and her friends seem left out by the women who wanted to run it without a committee.
The young woman next door having a first baby at 34 has had no husband at home for seven years due to war service. The poor lady goes into post natal depression (her illness is not given a name in the book) Her husband has to find someone to look after the baby and take his wife to a hospital in Lancaster and sign her in.
Nella keeps in touch writing her little notes and telling her what is going on at home - later these become the lady's lifeline.
Eventually her husband has to sign for her to have ECT (elecric shock treatment). After months she recovers.
This description should be read by non-believers in "Post Natal Depression".
Nella's father and mother in law become aged and senile. This has to be dealt with. Most falls to Nella.
She continually plans on emigrating to Australia to join her son Cliff but never goes. Cliff becomes a well known sculptor in Australia.
Her husband gives up his wood yard in 1950 and Nella lives till 1968.
This book is not as interesting as the diary based on the war years but is an excellent history.
I think without her diary to talk to while she was writing Nella would not have coped.
December 7, 2010
Nella Last’s dairy was part of Britain’s Mass Observation Project where many non-fighting English of all different occupations chronicled the everyday events on the home front. World War II is finally. However, the war hasn’t gone away. The shortages and rationing don’t appear to be over anytime soon. Damaged men are returning home to high unemployment. Women, who had a taste of working outside the home, were asked to go back home and return their jobs back to the men.
One of these women is Nella. The canteen and Red Cross where she donated so many hours have cut back their hours. No more fighting men headed to other parts of Europe, means there’s no need for Nella and the other’s time. But Nella is thankful that she still has her husband, who didn’t go off to war because of his work, and her two sons. Many women don’t. Generations would pass before England’s gene pool was revitalized and healthy.
Now that the war is over, Nella, like a lot of others, has lost that fighting spirit. She comes off as angry, depressed, bored with life as a housewife, resentful, and short-tempered. She and her husband are still able to take day trips, but they don’t relax her as they did during the fighting. And when they stop in other little towns or she goes to visit her oldest son Arthur and his new wife Edith and sees that the shortages aren’t as exaggerated as they are in Barrow-in-Furness, her depression and resentment deepens.
The publication contains excerpts from August 1945-December 1948 and gives readers a realistic view of English life after the war.
One of these women is Nella. The canteen and Red Cross where she donated so many hours have cut back their hours. No more fighting men headed to other parts of Europe, means there’s no need for Nella and the other’s time. But Nella is thankful that she still has her husband, who didn’t go off to war because of his work, and her two sons. Many women don’t. Generations would pass before England’s gene pool was revitalized and healthy.
Now that the war is over, Nella, like a lot of others, has lost that fighting spirit. She comes off as angry, depressed, bored with life as a housewife, resentful, and short-tempered. She and her husband are still able to take day trips, but they don’t relax her as they did during the fighting. And when they stop in other little towns or she goes to visit her oldest son Arthur and his new wife Edith and sees that the shortages aren’t as exaggerated as they are in Barrow-in-Furness, her depression and resentment deepens.
The publication contains excerpts from August 1945-December 1948 and gives readers a realistic view of English life after the war.
September 7, 2024
The title is a bit misleading. As Nella says, "The only peace is that there are no active hostilities, but the corrosion of the war years is eating deeper into civiliisation." While the war years were difficult and frightening for Brits, they were also exciting and drew people together in an effort to make things better. The post-war years had many of the same difficulties of the war, but without the comradery and cheerful "we'll see it through" attitude. Rationing went on for years (for example, gas was rationed until 1950) and in some cases was worse than during the war. Many women were single parents living in reduced circumstances. People couldn't see an end to economic distress. As with the first book of her diaries, Nella is an observant and dedicated recorder of her time. Her sons have moved away and she is feeling her years. Yet she is still a lively and sensitive person, finding happiness in the beauty of the countryside, the warmth of a fire, and her ability to make tasty and satisfying food from very little. I would love to sit down with her for one of her teas. No doubt her high standards would find me wanting as a housewife (I can't imagine anyone as industrious as she is), but I think we could see eye-to-eye on other things and have a laugh or two.
June 22, 2012
I found this Bookcrossing book on the shelves of a lovely local café. Last time I went there I picked up a number of Bookcrossing books with a WWII theme, so this was a great way to follow-on. I intended to borrow Nella Last's War from the library but I have been waiting a while for a book that is supposed to be on the shelf at another branch and decided to make a start. I don't think I'll really know if that has been a mistake until I have read the first volume. What has been a mistake is to leave it so long to read Nella Last's diaries!
I find the post-war period quite fascinating and Nella's writing really brings the period to life, all her thoughts 'big' and 'small'. I find it interesting how so many worries which are so current for us appear here too. I don't share Nella's political outlook but she explains herself so well. She conveys brilliantly the difficult atmosphere - peace as an absence of formal hostilities with the relief tempered by the loss of exhilaration that the dangers and common purpose of war had given, and no peace in people's hearts.
I find the post-war period quite fascinating and Nella's writing really brings the period to life, all her thoughts 'big' and 'small'. I find it interesting how so many worries which are so current for us appear here too. I don't share Nella's political outlook but she explains herself so well. She conveys brilliantly the difficult atmosphere - peace as an absence of formal hostilities with the relief tempered by the loss of exhilaration that the dangers and common purpose of war had given, and no peace in people's hearts.
June 15, 2013
I loved Victoria Wood's Housewife, 49 film based on the writings of Nella Last during WWII. I've not read that book but started with this one (I've had it for a while before listening to it, I think perhaps it was on offer on audible). This was brilliant. I felt really drawn into Nella's life and at one point as I listened realised I was worried about her. This diary of a woman who died about 15 years before I was born brought me into her life in such a way that I felt the same concern and worry that I would for friends or family in the same situation. it highlighted to me just how difficult life was for ordinary people right after WWII something I'd not been aware of in such detail before.
I've just started the audiobook of Nella Last in the 1950s which I also had from the same off. I'll be picking up Nella Last's War at some point too. I' was really very inspired by this book. It's the first book in a long time I've read and thought "I wish I wrote like this." I do blog - have done for years - but it's not the same,
I've just started the audiobook of Nella Last in the 1950s which I also had from the same off. I'll be picking up Nella Last's War at some point too. I' was really very inspired by this book. It's the first book in a long time I've read and thought "I wish I wrote like this." I do blog - have done for years - but it's not the same,
July 9, 2019
I couldn't wait to dive back into the life of Nella Last after enjoying her unique voice so much in the war diaries. This is a fascinating insight into the post-war years from the point of view of an ordinary housewife in Cumbria. Having found a new sense of freedom and usefulness working for the Women's Voluntary Service during the war, Nella feels a certain disappointment and lack of cameraderie once these services are no longer needed. She describes a less remembered period (to those who didn't live through it!) when rationing was still harsh but without the obvious necessity of war, while the knowledge of the atomic bomb and deteriorating relations in Korea meant that many people thought another war imminent even as peace had only just been declared. Meanwhile soldiers - Nella's younger son amongst them - find it difficult to reintegrate into a changed society where jobs are scarce and the cost of living high. However, Nella continues to find the joy and warmth in life which she relates in her inimitable, delightful writing.
July 23, 2011
c2008. Echoing a number of reviewers - I certainly found this inspirational and some what comforting. The blurb on the font of the book states a quote from AL Kennedy - whilst sadly I do not know who this particular person is, I wholeheartedly agree with the comment "Tender, intimate, heartbreaking and witty - it grants us the privilege of knowing a stranger's heart". This covers the period my own mother was hitting early married life and it is fascinating to me to be able to expand my mothers own tales with the bits and pieces of this truly fascinating social period. "We don't really matter individually, Harry. It's the pattern on the carpet that matters, and I am beginning the home stretch, I think. I feel as if I see clearer the real values - of doing the things at hand, of liking the things we have rather than having the things we like." He smiled and said, "In other ways, polishing up the dark side.""
January 16, 2015
Though obviously less eventful than her wartime diaries, I was still delighted by Nella's daily musings. Her writing gave a very vivid insight of the post-war era and it's many challenges, something I'd never really paid attention to before - the lack of jobs for the conscripted soldiers who were de-mobbed 'en masse', the struggles of women going back to housekeeping after having been so engaged in various causes and charities or employed due to the lack of male workforce, the long dragging period of rationing which carried on even though war was over as the country recovered...
She has a wonderful way of describing her entourage in all their glory or filth, and brings a human dimension which is made even more vivid by the fact that this is her true story, and all the characters in the book, real people. Very human, touching, and enlightening.
She has a wonderful way of describing her entourage in all their glory or filth, and brings a human dimension which is made even more vivid by the fact that this is her true story, and all the characters in the book, real people. Very human, touching, and enlightening.
November 4, 2014
Very enjoyable comparing Nella's life to mine. There seemed to be a bit of an anti climax after the War as the celebrations soon turned to picking up the pieces and resuming with normal life. Nella's reason for being took a downturn really but she soon found herself helping family, friends and neighbours and the more you read of Nella's diaries you just want to know what happens next. I love the way she details what they had for meals. Their main meal was at lunch time and for tea, which would be our main meal today was typically 'stewed apple with egg custard, toasted tea cakes, wholemeal bread and butter with honey and a fruit loaf. All sweet and nothing savoury! I have now ordered the final book from my Library - Nella in the 1950's.
April 21, 2013
Mass Observation is a social research organization associated with the University of Sussex. It was set up in the 1930's to establish "a science of ourselves" in Britain. Nella Last, Housewife, 49, was perhaps their most dedicated volunteer diarist, writing about her everyday life in Barrow-in-Furness and submitting weekly from 1939. She stopped writing in 1966, two years before her death.
This book, Nella Last's Peace, is an edited version of her writing after World War II, spanning years 1945 to 1948, and really is history on the cuff. Although, her world was relatively small, her thoughts and perspectives on the larger world are fascinatingly familiar.
This book, Nella Last's Peace, is an edited version of her writing after World War II, spanning years 1945 to 1948, and really is history on the cuff. Although, her world was relatively small, her thoughts and perspectives on the larger world are fascinatingly familiar.
August 14, 2014
Nella Last's Peace picks up where Nella Last's War left off. It deals with British life just after the war up to 1949. What Mrs. Last details is a country worn out from the conflict, the ongoing stress of rationing, returning service men who could find no employment or homes to live in. Added to these problems was the advent of a Labor Government which began the nationalization of utilities, transportation etc. Citizens experienced long periods of having no electrical power or coal to heat their homes. She writes often about the national fear of the atom bomb and the start of the Cold War. She also speaks about the arrogance of the American government during this critical period.
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