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An ordinary woman’s extraordinary diaries reveal wartime Britain’s hidden history.
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The Diaries of Nella Last

Writing in War and Peace

RRP$35.00

$33.54

  • Paperback

    480 pages

  • Release Date

    1 November 2012

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Summary

‘I can never understand how the scribbles of such an ordinary person . can possibly have value.’ So wrote Nella Last in her diary on 2 September 1949. More than sixty years on, tens of thousands of people have read and enjoyed three volumes of her vivid and moving diaries, written during the Second World War and its aftermath as part of the Mass Observation project - and the basis for BAFTA-winning drama Housewife 49 starring Victoria Wood.

The Diaries of Nella Last, brings together i…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781846685460
ISBN-10:184668546X
Author:Patricia Malcolmson, Robert Malcolmson
Publisher:Profile Books Ltd
Imprint:Profile Books Ltd
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:480
Edition:Main
Release Date:1 November 2012
Weight:441g
Dimensions:32mm x 136mm x 214mm
A-Format
B-Format
The Diaries of Nella Last by Patricia Malcolmson - ISBN: 9781846685460
136 × 214 mm
C-Format
A4
mm / in
What They're Saying

Critics Review

A fantastic story – Victoria Wood
My gut feeling is that Nella will come to be seen as one of the major twentieth-century English diarists. – David Kynaston, author of ‘Austerity Britain’
Whatever her mood, Nella Last has the quality shared by all great diarists: of making her readers feel that however vast the differences between her life and ours, they are easily outweighed by the shared experiences of love and loss, disappointment and hope, that she describes with such artless humanity. * Daily Mail *
I relished it … her personality is so powerful. – Margaret Forster
An excellent correlative to the mantra “everyone has a novel in them”. Some people are natural diarists and Nella is one of the best … She also used literary language in an entirely naturalistic way. – Lesley McDowell * Sunday Herald *
An epic journal … What brings her diaries to life is their unpretentious freshness and honesty. – Michael Kerrigan * Scotsman *

About The Author

Patricia Malcolmson

Patricia and Robert Malcolmson are social historians with a special interest in Mass Observation. They have edited several MO Diaries, including Nella Last’s Peace and Nella Last in the 1950s. They live in Nelson, British Columbia.

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