"Turn the page back to the mid-twentieth century, and discover a world peopled by women with radiant smiles, clean pinafores and gleaming coiffures; a promised land of batch-baking, maraschino cherries and brightly-hued plastic. A time before the Pill, when divorce spelled scandal, and two-piece swimsuits caused mass alarm.a Many of us today first opened our eyes onto this world. In 1951 British women helped to throw out the government that had brought them the Welfare State, and elect one that would deliver full employment and a consumer boom.a We've got everything now. I've a fridge, a washer and a television set, and that's all I want in life . . . But were our mothers and grandmothers really so easily satisfied? As a girl I wanted to be a lawyer. My headmistress said it wasn't for girls . . . Higher education was seen as husband-hunting. Ambition meant being a secretary and marrying the boss. InaPerfect Wives in Ideal HomesaVirginia Nicholson reconstructs the real 1950s, through the eyes of the women who lived it. We meet factory girls and Teddy girls, students and housewives, diplomats and immigrants. We meet women who thought you got pregnant if you kissed a man. Women whose gloves matched their handbags. In the '50s femininity was for sale as never before. The dark side of the decade encompasses rampant prostitution, a notorious murder, and the threat of nuclear disaster.a Here is a narrative of frustration and fear - but also of holiday camps, beauty contests, optimism and rock'n'roll. Step back in time - to the back-to-backs and the brand-new homes with their picture windows. Here, where our grandmothers scrubbed their doorsteps, cared for their families, lived, laughed, loved and struggled. a This is their story. "
Industry Reviews
Virginia Nicholson gets us closer than we have ever been before to the complicated day-to-day reality of women's lives during that still controversial decade, the 1950s -- David Kynaston
Nicholson handles her material with confidence, sympathy and, ultimately, optimism that for most women things have improved, so that the abiding emotion is not gloom but, in my case, admiration for my mother's generation and gratitude that it was so much better for ours -- Anne Sebba * Daily Telegraph *
Nicholson uses vivid contemporary sources and oral testimony to show the constraints under which so many women lived. Like David Kynaston's Family Britain . . . Nicholson has the same knack of seamlessly piecing gripping individual stories into a panorama of ordinary life -- Bee Wilson * Sunday Times *
An important and humane book of female social history . . . In this work, Nicholson musters voices to profound and deeply political effect. Much of the material in this book will be familiar to women over 55: we were born into this world. For younger women, though, Nicholson's book should be necessary reading, to remind them how far we have travelled. -- Melanie Reid * The Times *
An uplifting and heartwarming read * Stella *
Nicholson spells out the contradictions of this era so well: a new world dressed in old clothes -- David Barnett * Independent on Sunday *
Remarkable. To today's young, it'll sound like life on another planet * Daily Mail *
The achievements of the women in this book haunt us and move us to admiration -- Tessa Hadley * Guardian *
Insightful social history. Mixing research with a wealth of anecdote, Nicholson brings history to vivid and touching life -- Jenny McCartney * Mail on Sunday *
Poignantly illustrates how the women of the 1950s yearned for the innovative technology of the era to liberate them from repetitive drudgery -- Victoria Coren Mitchell * Observer *
Indefatigably researched, moving and perceptive, Nicholson handles her wide-ranging material with sympathy, humour and a lightness of touch. Her enviable gift for interpretation and storytelling is balanced by first-hand accounts of those women of the 1950s, their youth so relatively recent, who have trusted her with the intimate details of their lives -- Juliet Nicolson * Spectator *
There is certainly warmth in [Virginia Nicholson's] curiosity as she delves into the stories of her mother's generation . . . Nicholson's judgements are rightly and often amusingly sharp . . . Her skill as an interviewer leaves her subjects revealing long-kept secrets and her flair as a writer makes us care about these young women and what happens to them -- Lara Feigel * Observer *
Richly detailed. We hear from women working as air hostesses, housewives, biscuit packers, prostitutes, academics, models, secretaries and Buttlin's Redcoats. We discover how women felt entering beatuty contests, having to give up work on marriage, being defined by their husband's jobs, becomming unmarried mothers, enduring racism, marching against nuclear weapons and desiring other women. Nicholson's own commentary, in turns compassionate and wry, holds everything together -- Michele Roberts * Independent *
A fascinating look at the lives of ordinary women in 1950s Britain * Sunday Times *
Meticulously researched -- Femke Colborne * Big Issue in the North *
A ground-breaking book, richly nuanced with titbits of information, insight and understanding * Daily Mail (on 'Singled Out') *
Remarkably perceptive and well-researched . . . Virginia Nicholson has produced another extraordinarily interesting work, sensitive, intelligent and well-written * Sunday Telegraph (on 'Singled Out') *
An inspiring book, lovingly researched, well-written and humane . . . the period is beautifully caught * Economist (on 'Singled Out') *
The popular image is of a world where women wore little frilled pinafores with immaculately coiffed hair and happy smiles as they dusted, swept and baked . . . But Nicholson's book reveals a much darker side of life * Telegraph, Best Non-Fiction Books of 2015 *
Gripping, constantly surprising: a page-turner. We hear at first hand the life stories of women from different walks of life, from factory workers to debs. Each story draws you right in and it's always a wrench to move on -- Country Life
