Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived without Men After the First World War - Hardcover

Nicholson, Virginia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670915645 ISBN 13: 9780670915644

Publisher: Viking, 2007

Synopsis

The First World War deprived Britain of three-quarters of a million soldiers, with as many more incapacitated. In 1919 a generation of women who unquestioningly believed marriage to be their birthright discovered that there were, quite simply, not enough men to go round. The press ran alarming stories about the ‘Problem of the Surplus Women – Two Million who can never become Wives . . .’. But behind the headlines were thousands of brave, emancipated individuals forced by a tragedy of historic proportions to rethink their entire futures.

Tracing their fates, Virginia Nicholson shows how the single woman of the inter-war decades had to stop depending on men for her income, her identity and her happiness. Some just endured, others challenged the conventions, fought the system and found fulfilment. Singled Out pays homage to this remarkable generation of women who were changed by war, and in their turn helped change society.

About this title

Review:

Praise for Among the Bohemians:

'An extraordinarily rich, provocative study . . . not just good fun, it raises profound questions about our lives' Independent

'Outrageously enjoyable' Guardian

About the Author:

Virginia Nicholson was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She has worked as a documentary researcher for BBC Television and her first book, Charleston – A Bloomsbury House and Garden (written in collaboration with her father, Quentin Bell), was an account of the Sussex home of her grandmother, the painter Vanessa Bell. Her second book, Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900―1939, was published by Penguin in 2002. She lives in Sussex.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0670915645
• ISBN 13: 9780670915644
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336