Nella Last was a volunteer to the UK's Mass Observation Project when WWII began. I read the book in which her diary entries from that period are compiled in 2020. This book from her diaries covers the period immediately after the war, August 1945 through Dec 1948.

Before the war Nella had always been a homebody and often ill. During the war she pushed herself to become a volunteer and found she had skills in organizing and managing that she didn't know she had and she was surprised to find she enjoyed working. In this volume the volunteer opportunities are over and Nella is back in her home. The adjustment is difficult for her and other women to make. In addition to feeling like she had lost her purpose, she had every possible hardship to deal with, particularly food. In the first book there were few complaints about her husband but after the war her patience with him grew thin because he expected to be the center of her life. He seems to be having a lot of anxiety which I don't remember from the earlier book and that is also a burden for her. Although her sons both made it through the war she worries about them finding jobs and housing.

One of the ways Nella deals with it all is to read! She often writes of going to the library. She had dreamed of being a writer herself, and of course, she became one with her diaries. In the Afterwards we learn her oldest son will become a bookstore owner and bookbinder in the early 1960s. Her younger son moved to Australia in 1947, another hardship for Nella. As the 1950s grow near and life is not so harsh Nella's mood begins to lift. The next and last book, which I have just ordered, is Nella Last in the 1950s. I love "ordinary" Nella and look forward to finding out what came next. The first book has been filmed as a movie, Housewife, 49. The 49 refers to her age when she started the diaries. ( )

Nella's second diary installment is just as rich as the first. Early on in the book you realize that you are going to meet a "different/changed" woman, and the Nella that is revealed in these edited diary entries is a bit more sad and circumspect. No doubt this was common in the UK given that the end of the war did not mean the end of rationing, and that the sluggish economy combined with millions of returning men meant women were being pushed out of the workforce wholesale. That sort of an environment was tough on Nella -- someone who so strongly valued all the gains in esteem and independence that she had made during the war.

But happy or sad, this "ordinary" woman's diary is so much richer than fiction and her story is as captivating as it is the tale of a regular person living a regular life in extraordinary times. ( )

Everyone knows about the courage of the British people during World War II, but many are ignorant of the fact that wartime sacrifices extended for years after the end of the war. Britain, essentially bankrupt after the end of the war, kept rationing in effect until 1953 while funneling their industrial output towards exports and hard currency.

In this Mass Observation diary, one sees the dreary grind of daily life in the years immediately after the end of the war. People's lives were made even more dreary because there was no common sense of purpose or sacrifice as there had been during wartime. Instead there was just plodding ahead one day at a time & hoping for better days to come.

Nella Last, the diarist, captures all of this in vivid language and imagry. Once again one is grateful for the institution of Mass Observation and the treasure trove of primary historical documents that resides at the University of Sussex. ( )

21 Apr 2009 - Amazon voucher from Christmas

Sequel to Nella Last's War, this finds the Barrow housewife and her family struggling through the post-war years of rationing, queues and drabness. Once again, Nella is a fascinating read, with views both of her own situation and far beyond out into the world. Neighbours and other characters from the town are portrayed economically and amusingly or touchingly (sometimes both) and her situation, while specific to her time and place, becomes universal when she discusses her marriage, in-laws up and down the generations etc.

I seem to have read NL's War via BookCrossing so will look out for a copy to keep with this one. ( )