Wartime in West Suffolk

The Diary of Winifred Challis, 1942-1943
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-1-84383-702-2
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, Band 55, 212 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 544 g

Reihe: Suffolk Records Society

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Malcolmson, Robert

Searby, Peter

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Biographien & Autobiographien: Historisch, Politisch, Militärisch

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
THE DIARY. Part One: November 1942 to January 1943
THE DIARY. Part Two: February to June 1943
Afterword
Appendix A: Mass-Observation
Appendix B: Winifred Challis's Early Life
Appendix C: Winifred Challis's account of VE Day celebrations in Bury St Edmunds

Über Autor(innen)

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