Nicholson - Perfect wives in ideal homes: the story of women in the 1950s

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First published 2015

Copyright Virginia Nicholson, 2015

All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

ISBN: 978-0-241-95805-6

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No writer can do it on their own, writers of non-fiction especially, so I am in debt to the many people who made this book possible. Eleo Gordon, who has been my wonderful editor for nearly fifteen years, has supported me in every way, as a professional and as a friend. My husband, William Nicholson, always my first reader, has been unfailingly loving, wise, patient and critical in the most constructive way. Caroline Dawnay is an agent whose skills are legendary in the book world; I am one of her grateful beneficiaries. She also helped me to find one of my most interesting interviewees. Thanks too to Venetia Butterfield and Joanna Prior, who have shown consistent confidence and enthusiasm for this book. Julia Nicholsons interest in my writing (and my punctuation) has been daughterly, professional, helpful and heart-warming. This book is dedicated to her.

If it has a USP, it is that much of the research is drawn from first-hand interviews with women prepared to share the (sometimes) most intimate memories of their lives. Women all over Britain were generous, hospitable and trusting. My task has been not to betray that trust. They are: Audrey Alssebrook, Lorna Arnold, Pat Arrowsmith, Gloria Blackwood, Brenda Bullock, Flora Calder, Sarah Curtis, the Honourable Iris Dawnay MVO, Phyllis Dennis, Professor Mary Evans, Florence Fell, Lady Jacqueline Goode, Sheila Just, Janet Lovegrove, Vilma Maduro, Professor Christine Margolis, Dorothy Medhurst, Elizabeth Monnington, Eileen Mooney, Leila Mudd, Maureen Nicol, Rose Shine, Anne Stamper, Valerie Tedder, Dilys Thompson, Angela Waller and Anthea York. I also had valuable conversations with Rupert Christiansen, Lady Conran, Sue MacGregor and Pauline Williams.

Many individuals kindly sent me their suggestions for interviewees, while others went to the additional trouble of making introductions, and in many cases offered welcome hospitality; my thanks to Yaba Badoe, Terry Baker, Julian Bell, Professor Jay Blumler, Cynthia Brown, Wendy Butlin, Stephanie Calman, Steve Condie, Claire Days, Bevolin Garneth, Alan Gascoyne, Peter Grimsdale, Sophia Hartland, Sophie Henderson, Julian Henriques, Dave Hopper, Colin Hyde, Sarah Jelly, Sue McAlpine, Angela McKeith, Nick Milner-Gulland, Anne Morrison, Caroline Muir, Jamie Muir, Iram Naz, Michael Poole, Sandra Shakespeare, Dr Richard Smith, Ron Stanway, Paula Thompson and Sheila Walker.

I owe particular thanks to Sharon Chen, who gave me invaluable support with her research expertise, quick intelligence, and convenient access to the Social Sciences library at the London School of Economics; also to Paul Beecham, who travelled to the (less convenient, and now obsolete) Colindale Library to find me newspaper articles about his speciality, which is Teddy boys. Charles Anson, Juliet Gardiner, David Kynaston, Kate Murphy, Angela Neuberger, Professor Gill Plain, Jane Robinson, Otto Saumarez Smith and Marina Warner have provided me with useful advice and erudite recommendations. Thank you all; and also to Carmen Callil for her unfailingly warm encouragement. And thank you to Mary McPherson, who kindly sent me a copy of her interesting autobiography.

I am also grateful to Sir Peter Bazalgette, Valerie Grove and Russ Kane for helping to clear the undergrowth lying around certain research routes, while family, friends and acquaintances have been ready to help with answers to the oddest queries. Augusta Skidelskys mathematical talents merit a warm acknowledgement, as do Sulaiman Hakemys patient and detailed responses to my enquiries regarding the use of the mihrab, Teddy Nicholsons conscientious descriptions of the interiors of Embassy residences, and Norman Stones explanations of the tenets of the Congregationalist church. A particular thank you to Maria Nicholson for her methodical approach to the extra-curricular task I assigned her of dealing with certain literary estates.

My warmest thanks to the librarians and archivists who have made their treasure-troves available to me the manuscript boxes, folders, tapes and microfilms that reveal the unmediated past lives of so many women. They are Hannah Ishmael at the Black Cultural Archives, Fiona Courage and her team at the University of Sussex Special Collections, Jenny Brattle and Hannah Lowery at the University of Bristol Special Collections, Sonia Gomes at the Womens Library, Paula Gerrard at the archive of Brunel University, Dr Lesley Hall at the Wellcome Institute Library; also the staff of the London Library and those at the British Library particularly in the recorded sound collections who helped me to access their oral history recordings.

Last (but never least), thank you to Annie Lee for her meticulous copy-editing, and to my admired associate Douglas Matthews for the index. And thank you too to the team at Viking, especially Jillian Taylor, Poppy North, Keith Taylor and Catriona Hillerton.

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In addition, the author gratefully acknowledges the kind permission of copyright holders to quote from a number of authors and sources, as follows: excerpts from The Centre of the Bed by Joan Bakewell, copyright 2003 Joan Bakewell, reproduced by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; an excerpt from Business Girls from CollectedPoems, by John Betjeman, 1955, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1968, 1970, 1979, 1981, 1982, 2001, reproduced by permission of John Murray (Publishers), an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; A Pocket with a Hole: A Birmingham Childhood of the 1940s and 1950s, Over the Wall: A Working-class Girl at University in the 1950s, and Reflected Glory, by Brenda Bullock, published by Brewin Books, Studley, Warwickshire, all excerpts reprinted by kind permission of the author; A Good School: Life at a Girls Grammar School in the 1950s, The Womens Press Ltd, London, by Mary Evans, all excerpts reprinted by kind permission of the author; Hidden Lives: A Family Memoir, by Margaret Forster, all excerpts reprinted by kind permission of the author; extracts from