Nella Last's Peace / Cumbria Reading Detectives

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Thanks to the wonderful play Housewife 49, written by and starring Victoria Wood, I think a great many people are now familiar with the war diaries of Nella Last, upon which it was based. However, considerably fewer people may know that a second volume of Nella's diaries have been published, which concentrate on the post-war era, entitled Nella Last's Peace.

Nella Last was a housewife, married to Will who had his own joinery and shop fitting business in Barrow in Furness. Will and Nella lived in Ilkley Road with their younger son, Cliff, who was in the Army and their older son, Arthur, who was a tax inspector and thus exempted from conscription.

Barrow-in-Furness is town with a long history of shipbuilding, at the south westerly tip of Cumbria and during the Blitz, it became a target for German bombing.

Nella Last began writing her diary in 1939 for the Mass Observation Project, which had been running since 1937 with the aim of capturing and recording the views of ordinary British people The project recruited volunteer diarists who were tasked with observing British life, and producing a day-to-day account of their lives. Nella was one such recruit, and the title Housewife 49, is how she was described by the Mass Observation Project.

Over 200 diarists contributed to the project, but what is truly outstanding about Nella's diary is the dedication with which she approached the task - over the 30 years she wrote her entries she wrote between 1.5 and 2 million words, making her diary one of the the longest in the English language, and a rich resource for anyone studying the social history of the time it spans. (The diaries are now part of the Mass Observation Archive which is held at the University of Sussex, and it is open to the public.)

It is even more amazing when one considers that her entries were not read until the 1980s, and the first volume of her writings was published as Nella Last's War. I read this book not long after its publication in the 1980s and it is a fascinating read, recounting how Barrow was bombed, and how Nella, as lots of other women, developed lives outside the home either working in jobs which had been vacated by the men going off to fight, or as Nella did, volunteering in the WVS and the Red Cross. I was working in Barrow at the time I read the first volume of her diaries, and it really brought home to me how a small Cumbrian town, and its people, suffered and were affected by events on the larger world stage.

Nella carried out a number of different roles during the war, including weaving and embroidery, setting up canteens for civil defense workers and troops stationed in Barrow, and also working in the Red Cross shop. There is very much a sense that Nella "finds" herself during this period, having had a difficult period of ill-health which might best be described as a breakdown. We see her growing to be a brave, independent, resourceful, and humourous woman who faces the shortages, difficulties, dangers and challenges of war and is made stronger because of them .

However in Nella Last's Peace, her diary shows how women had to revert to their former lives back in the home, as men return to claim the jobs and the volunteering opportunities dry up. It is very much a period of re-adjustment for all women, but especially for Nella, who throws her energies into knitting dolls which were used to raise money for charity, and misses the activity and comradeship of the war years.

The diaries often mention her relationships with both family and friends and also refer frequently to the difficulties in her marriage with her husband Will, as well as her worries about Cliff and Arthur. (Arthur continued to work as a tax inspector and Cliff emigrated to Australia, where he became a noted sculptor.)

Nella also reflects on her extended family, her own history, her trips to the coast and the Lake District, as well as day to day conversations, gossip and scandals. Mixed in with this is an astute and perceptive view of post-war events both nationally and internationally.

The volume of her output is equalled by the quality of her writing, and the entries make you look at Barrow, the surrounding areas and also The Lakes with a deeper understanding and appreciation.

Nella Last's Peace is as equally a fascinating, absorbing, entertaining and informative read as the first volume of her diaries, and I can't recommend them highly enough.

(And as a post script, whilst talking to Mary about this book, she tells me that one of the Kendal Library staff is actually a relative of the Last family!)

27 October 2009 from Helen

5 Comments

Jeremy Last | September 5, 2011 10:12 AM

Just read this article and the postscript. As the youngest of Nellas two surviving grandsons, I was interested to hear of a relative of the family working in the library.

Perhaps somebody would be kind enough to pass on my details should there be of any interest.

Jerry Last

Helen | September 5, 2011 2:58 PM

Hello Jerry and thank you for your post.
I will forward your contact information on to the member of staff concerned.
Kind regards
Helen

Shae | February 11, 2012 3:59 AM

Hello from Australia and thank you Helen for your excellent information about Nella.(The best I've found and read so far!)
I've only started reading 'her' first book and just do not want to put it down. So glad there are other books to continue on!!
What a lovely, kind, helpful, thoughtful,
'beautiful thinking',compassionate,inspirational
creative, HIGHLY intelligent,loving,OUTSTANDING writer,woman and citizen with integrity she was! So many wonderful attributes, that as I read more from her, I could go on and on in my own thoughts. For me, Nella really lives today through her words. Jerry,(thank you too for your post) you must be so proud to have her as your nan!! I too have a lovely mother and 'had' two lovely nans and Nella also reminds me of them. To conclude, above all she certainly was and is a truly wonderful and not 'ordinary housewife' mother!
Shay

Helen | February 15, 2012 1:04 PM

Hello Shay and thank you so much for your lovely comment. I am so delighted to hear how much you are enjoying Nella's diaries, and I know just what you mean about finding it hard to put down.

You may be interested to learn that in addition to Nella Last's War and Nella Last's Peace there is now a third volume of diaries, which was published in October 2010 almost a year after I posted my original entry. THe third volume is called: Nella Last in the 1950s-the further diaries of housewife, 49.

To quote the publisher's information about the book: "This third compelling volume sees Nella, now in her sixties, writing of what ordinary people felt during those years of growing prosperity in a modernising Britain. Her diary offers a detailed, moving and humorous narrative of daily life at a time that shaped the society we live in today."

I can recommend it as equally and unreservedly as the fisrt two volumes.

Happy reading Shay!

Helen

Shay replied to comment from Helen | February 18, 2012 4:27 AM

Thank you very much Helen for your very nice reply! The information about the follow on books is SO helpful. I shall actually look for these books right away, as I have now finished Nella's War. Just like the Mass Observation Project, the Reading Detective site was a really great idea! Re Nella's War... well it was Superb! After I finished reading, this is what I thought....
When Nella sat writing for the project, it must have given her so much 'relief' and joy to be able to express the 'higher level conversation' she so thought of and longed for on a regular basis...... that is, something that just goes beyond and above those around her. I like to think she wrote with the hope (as it thankfully did happen) that somewhere others would at least see what she was 'all about'. Her beautiful description 'about' the leaves, while walking in the woods she loved, was so moving and one of the most outstanding passages of thought, I've ever read. I actually think this book should be on every high school reading text book list, as through Nella's wonderful character and integrity, it explores so many themes (not only women's liberation) and teaches so much about life, regardless of the era!
Thank you again Helen for listing the next books... as you can see, I will be so looking forward to continuing 'the conversation' with the very special Nella Last.
Kind Regards
Shay

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