Nella Last in the 1950s

Patricia and Robert Malcolmson are social historians with a special interest in Mass Observation. They have edited several MO Diaries, including Nella Last's Peace (2008) and Nella Last in the 1950s (2010), and are currently writing a social history of the wartime Women's Voluntary Services. They live in Nelson, British Columbia.

Unhappily married, and frustrated by the tedium of domestic captivity, she recorded with exceptional honesty her reactions to privation, bombing, fear and dreary monotony, speaking for millions to whom the war denied any heroic role. Among the most striking passages is that which describes her response to the dropping of the atomic bombs in 1945: she greeted the news not with exultation at allied victory, but with revulsion about the event's significance for mankind. -- Max Hastings Observer A vivid and characteristically distinctive account of those uncertain years poised between austerity and affluence. It confirms Nella Last's status as one of the major twentieth-century English diarists. -- David Kynaston It's wonderful to be back in Nella's world again. Such emotional candour, so many entertaining little personal battles. Unquestionably one of the great British diaries of the mid-20th century. -- Simon Garfield Nella Last's diaries give a fascinating and detailed account of life in the early 1950s. The prose is such a delight to read - lively, entertaining, observational and vividly realised -- Gervase Phinn, author of Road to the Dales A must-read Yours Diary of a Desperate Housewife: A fascinating record of the "ordinary" life of a Lancashire housewife... [she has] a marvellous gift for fining pleasure in small things. She had a poet's eye for landscape... She is funny too and sharply comic... Whatever her mood, Nella Last has the quality shared by all great diarists: of making her readers feel that however vast the differences between her life and ours, they are easily outweighed by the shared experiences of love and loss, disappointment and hope, that she describes with such artless humanity. -- Jane Shilling Daily Mail This third compelling volume of f her detailed diaries offers a fascinating narrative of daily life in Britain during the early Fifties -- Charlotte Vowden Daily Express Nella was one of the most prolific and lively contributors to Mass Observation... offers vivid insight into the straitened circumstances of post-war provincial life... A writer of warmth and sensibility, Nella's reflections went well beyond the Mass Observation remit. What we get is not only a historical document, but a self-knowing portrait of a woman whose cheerful exterior was often at odds with the "hollow shell" she felt herself to be inside. -- Emma Hagestadt The Lady Last's self-awareness and clear prose help us understand the attitudes and experiences of real, complex members of the public. -- Alastair Mabbott Glasgow Herald Delightful... this fascinating document shows how change was felt by ordinary people. Detailed and totally absorbing. Saga An evocative record of post-war provincial life... rich in personal insight... A writer of warmth and sensibility... What we get is not only a historical document, bur a self-knowing woman whose cheerful exterior was often at odds with the "hollow shell" she felt herself to be inside. -- Emma Hagestadt Independent History Books of the Year: A poignant reminder of the pleasures of micro-history... perceptive. -- Lisa Hilton Independent on Sunday