An riveting insight into an under researched time in post- WW2 Britain
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This book just draws you right into this little known period right after WW2. The writings of all the diarists are so revealing of contemporary attitudes, opinions and the minutiae fo everyday life , in a way that anything written retrospectively can never be. I was absolutely fascinated and absorbed by this book.
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Our hidden lives - revealed
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I am a voracious reader of anything to do with the lives of ordinary people during and immediately after the post war period and this is an absolutely fascinating book. It feels as if you are looking over the shoulders of the people writing the diaries and these diaries (by modern standards) pull no punches. Much of what is said is both politically incorrect (and hooray for that) and especially, with the opinions about Jewish people, deeply upsetting and disturbing.
That said this compilation gives a compelling picture of what life was like in the immediate post war period, the ongoing dreariness of every day life with food rationing getting worse rather than better. The sheer difficulty of replacing the most ordinary articles, the tiresomeness of having to make do and mend and the grinding knowledge that things were not going to get better anytime soon. In the event rationing went on until 1953, eight years after the war ended!
If you want to know what life was really like for the ordinary man and woman in the street at this time, then this is the book for you, it is entertaining, amusing and as previously mentioned, occasionally upsetting, but it is always fascinating. It will give you an enthralling look into other lives in a very time and a very different Britain.
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Wonderful
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You wouldn't think that the diaries of five people commenting on shopping trips, gardening, their health and jobs could be much of page turner, but somehow this is. I have loved every sentence so far and am so dreading reaching the end, that I have just ordered the other two books in the series. I just wish that I had read them in order. I seem to have started at the end!
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Good Read
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I really enjoyed this book, I read it over a long period but was deeply engrossed into it each time I picked it up. Perhaps it's the pure nosyness of being "allowed" to read a diary, the great interest in what was happening to people at the time, seeing the shifts in society and opinions of how "community" lives together and knowing where it was headed in the reality of what we have today. Really recommend this one.
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Non Airbrushed History
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I could not put this fascinating book down . I am sorry that some readers have have found references to anti-semitism & black people offensive ( I too was taken aback st times by some of the diarists comments ) , but as I've said in my title , this is history that has not been airbrushed .
There are many parallells with modern life , such as crime , poor conditions in hospitals , etc .
I would strongly recommend this book to all those with an interest in social history & it is as well to remember that times & attitudes do change . That was then then , this is now . Not to read this this book because of offensive comments will result in missing out on an excellent selection of how ordinary people lived & thought then .
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