Wartime in West Suffolk: The Diary of Winifred Challis, 1942-1943 (Suffolk Records Society) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1843837021 ISBN 13: 9781843837022

Publisher: Suffolk Records Society, 2012

Synopsis

Detailed and engaging diary entries throw new light on what it was really like to live in wartime Suffolk. Winifred Challis (1896-1990) spent most of her life in West Suffolk. Born in Newmarket, during the Second World War she was working in Bury St Edmunds for the Public Assistance Committee and was one of nearly 500 people who at some point during the war kept a diary for the social research organization, Mass Observation. From November 1942 she wrote at length about her everyday life, her feelings, and the social and political attitudes of both herself and others. Winifred, while often introspective, was also a close observer of the world around her, a free thinker, and an accomplished and penetrating writer, with a questioning mind and a quick wit. For several months in 1942-1943 she immersed herself in her diary-writing, producing on some days at least a couple of thousand words of perceptive commentary on the wartime scene - rationing, shortages, the often bleak texture of daily life, the sometimes disconcerting presence of outsiders in Bury, but with various moments of satisfaction and pleasure. Her diaries provide an unusual and fascinating record of a critical period of Suffolk's history. Robert Malcomson is Professor Emeritus of History, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario; Peter Searby was until his retirement Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

About this title

Review

[A] very highly recommended addition to mid-20th Century English History reference collections and supplemental reading lists. BOOKWATCH

About the Author

Robert Malcomson is Professor Emeritus of History, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario; Peter Searby was until his retirement Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

Edition details

• Publisher: Suffolk Records Society
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1843837021
• ISBN 13: 9781843837022
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 212
• Editor: Malcolmson Robert, Searby Peter