Joining the Dots: A Woman In Her Time

by Juliet Gardiner

From Britain’s leading social historian, a lyrical look at the changes to women’s lives since 1940, told with examples from her own life. The book provides an intimate, brilliant account of feminism over the last 6 decades.

“A young woman wearing a navy-blue duffle coat stood shivering in the vaulted Victorian booking hall of Temple Meads station in Bristol looking uncertainly around her. It was 1st January 1960 and the woman was me. I was sixteen years old, and I had run away from home.”

Over the next ten years, the world changed around young Juliet Gardiner – as it did for most women in Britain. It was the start of a decade that was to be momentous for Britain’s history – politically, economically, socially and culturally.

As one of Britain’s best-known social historians, Juliet Gardiner writes here about the span of women’s lives from her birth during the Second World War to the election of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister. Using episodes from her own life as starting points to illuminate the broader history in society at large, she explores changing ideas towards birth and adoption, the importance of education for girls, The opportunities offered by university, to expectations of work and motherhood, not to mention her generation’s yearning for freedom.

Everyone has his or her history and at the same time is part of history as this book so perceptively and beautifully demonstrates. As a work of living history, both lyrical and personal, Joining the Dots is an accessible and empowering story of how one mid-twentieth-century woman grew into a world so different from the one into which she was born. It is a story of bed-sits, sexual choice, motherhood and marriage, feminism, family planning and professional ambition.

Genres: Biography, Memoir, Nonfiction, Historical, History, Feminism, British Literature

208 pages, Hardcover

Published August 10, 2017

Reviews

[Alexander Gardiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting account of a life lived in a time when the expectations and possibilities for women shifted dramatically, but then I would say that wouldn't I, being that woman's eldest son.

[Alarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gardiner was a trailblazing journalist for her time, but that’s also why this account felt distant, like she didn’t want to break form to write a more emotional memoir. I've read so much Brit lit about WWII and its aftermath, that the attention to topics like ration coupons was ho hum. However, I was suitably appalled by the lack of opportunity for women wanting careers, since I went through that ordeal about a decade later in the U.S. The Brits not only made it harder for women but were so class conscious that the options for middle class or lower children to get a proper education were appalling.

The book finally came alive for me after the half way point, when the teen bride and mother decided she needed to go to university and make her own way in the world.

[Adrian]

Short memoir by British historian. Gardiner grew up in the 1950s and I think it's fair to say was considerably effected by the knowledge she was adopted. Never feeling she fit in anywhere and in a hurry to grow up and leave home she did just that by finding jobs at age 16 and getting married at 18. By the time she was 26 she had three children and was reassessing her life. She educated herself while looking after kids eventually becoming editor of History Today magazine. She has a sharp eye and ear for the telling anecdote or important story which brings the era she lived through into clearer view. She's particularly good on describing the life of unwed mothers of the 1950s. No one who had been through that would ever want to go back there again. Very invigorating read.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read and enjoyed three or four of Gardiner's social history books, I thought I'd love this, but I didn't. It's a short memoir and not terribly interesting on the whole. I admired the fact that she left school at 16 and 'ran away from home' in search of adventure, but nothing much came of that, except she got married very soon afterwards. She had three children in rather quick succession and lived in a middle class area of London. Her husband became a Conservative MP, which clashed with her politics and they eventually divorced. There is very little of Gardiner's personality in the book and it's all rather dry. She did go to university as a mature student and her first job was on History Today. The epilogue brings the reader down with a bump and may explain why the book isn't more comprehensive and entertaining.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book both personal and historical. A worthy and little mentioned perspective of a now mature, educated woman and a scholar of history.

[Esther · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought this was going to be really good, but it was just ok. On paper an autobiographical work by an eminent social historian charting her journey through adolescence and adulthood in 60s and 70s Britain, get it I thought (noting for the record that this was bought at the 'as excellent as you'd imagine' Oxfam bookstore in leafy Hampstead). But a lot of this wasn't that interesting, bit plodding. I mean there were 'how far we've come' moments a plenty, have you had a hysterectomy she was asked when applying to go to university after having children, but nothing that groundbreaking and neither was the writing oddly enough, though I've not read any of her history works to compare.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book on the social history of women (from post WW2) in the UK. Lots of research but also autobiographical accounts from the author. I wasn't expecting it to be as anecdotal, however it added a clear insight to support some of the research. I enjoyed the latter half of the book more and found it particularly interesting to read about the stigma surrounding divorce (more so for women).

3 stars

[Ms Jayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readable, moving memoir about how women's lives have changed over the post-War period. I really enjoyed it! I have read two of Juliet Gardiner's social history books and thought they were great and seen her on the telly several times so it's great to read about her own life.

I especially enjoyed the description of the time she spent in a Span development (which I hadn't heard of but now see everywhere) and the cultural tastes of Habitat-shopping women with their chicken bricks!

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 really. Parts were really good - but some bits seemed quite superficial.

[Catie]

Recommendation in, The Persephone Letter - 9/2/2017