
In September 1939 housewife & mother Nella Last began a diary whose entries in their regularity length & quality have created a record of the Second World War which is powerful fascinating & unique. When war broke out Nella's younger son joined the army while the rest of the family tried to adapt to civilian life. Writing each day for the ' Mass Observation' project Nella a middle-aged housewife from the bombed town of Barrow shows what people really felt during this time. This was the period in which she turned 50 saw her children leave home & reviewed her life & her marriage
- which she eventually compares to slavery. Her growing confidence as a result of her war work makes this a moving (though often comic) testimony which covering sex death & fear of invasion provides a new unglamorised female perspective on the war years. ' Next to being a mother I'd have loved to write books'
- Oct 8 1939.