Unfortunately this book was not released in the United States. ( )

In September 1939, at the outbreak of World War II, Nella Last, a 49-year old British housewife began writing a journal as part of the the Mass Observation Project. She continued her diary for almost 30 years and it was later edited and published as two volumes, Nella Last's War and Nella Last's Peace.

Nella Last was married to a shopfitter, William Last and had two sons, Arthur and Cliff. The family lived in the northern English town of Barrow-in-Furness. In this first book, Nella chronicles in great detail how the everyday lives of family, friends and neighbours were affected by the War, local bombings, rations and other personal deprivations. She also reveals, often with great candour, her innermost feelings and perceptions on marriage, family, her son Cliff's involvement in the War and and the voluntary work she participated in outside the home. Throughout this fascinating memoir, Nella comes across as a generous and compassionate spirit who, despite frequent poor health, was dependable and resourceful and cared selflessly for the needs of others during the War. ( )

On the Christmas tellybox, there was a drama project instigated by and starring Victoria Wood, based on the diaries of Nella Last, Housewife, 49. We thought it was brill, and I discovered the book on Amazon, and ordered it for myself as a late Crimbo pressie. If you didn't see the play, and get a chance to, I'd highly recommend it.

Mrs Nella Last was a lower middle-class housewife in Barrow-in-Furness, aged 49 at the outbreak of the Second World War. She had a stable though fundamentally unsatisfying marriage, to a man who had taken on the family business as joiners and shipfitters. She had two sons, Arthur who is training to be a tax inspector, and therefore in a reserved occupation, and Cliff who is more unsettled in life, but has been called up and is going to be a fitness instructor. Her main role is to run the household, which she does with the help of a combined charlady and maid-of-all-work, who does the heavy work around the house a few days per week.

Nella has never really been well, disabled in childhood and with a history of mystery "operations". She would have liked more children, and obviously enjoys having a household full of young people playing games and eating her good food. Her husband is not a social animal, and insists that she doesn't go out without him - then he won't go anywhere. He keeps her on a fairly tight leash financially, and she doesn't get on with his family. Her strong sense of duty and a desire to conform for the sake of peace in the house have placed her under a great deal of stress, and she has had a series of nervous breakdowns as a result. With the support of her doctor and her sons, she has found an outlet in keeping diaries for the Mass Observation Project. (The Project was set up in the late thirties, and was a queer mixture of artistic documentary, propaganda and morale monitor, and voyeurism. People of all walks of life were encouraged to send in regular diaries, and answer questionnaires on all sorts of subjects, including recreation habits and sexual behaviour. Some of the archive material has been published in book format, including a selection from Nella. The archive is also used for research, by students, academics, journalists etc.). Because she's writing for the Project and not for a person, Nella is able to write freely and confidentially, in a way you never could in a letter or blog.

The war frees Nella in a way she'd never thought possible. She'd been involved with various groups and charity work before, but had always had to give it up either because of her health or because it just caused too much trouble at home. Now she can volunteer for the WVS, which supports hospitals, provides canteens for forces personnel, and mobile canteens for emergencies such as large air raids. With her sons now away from home, she has a chance to re-evaluate her relationship with her husband - a telling aspect of her diaries is that she never calls him by his first name. The diaries are spattered with recipes and hints on managing a neat and tidy home, thoughts on sex and pregnancy before marriage and the effect on young lives of the disruption of war, the social changes which will follow the war, and some very decided views on the role of women and their work in the home, and how that should be recognised by the state. She's very progressive about the ideas people are putting forward for the formation of a welfare state, and deeply critical of what she sees as government mismanagement of people and resources in wartime.

Yet at the same time I got the feeling I wouldn't have liked her very much. She can be very sharp-tongued and selfish in small things, her habits of domestic economy have made her miserly and prone to criticise others, and she doesn't suffer fools or snobs gladly. Although she has a spiritual side, it finds outlet in nature (she loves her trips to the lakes and the sea), and she has a dislike of organised religion and is not tolerant of people who find comfort in it. She's quite vain about some of her skills. Despite her own mental health history, she has no time or sympathy for people who she sees as knuckling under - although she's always got a soft spot for mothers who have lost children.

The diaries are also fascinating because you know the wider story - the timetable of the war, the fact that there wasn't an invasion. Yet you don't know the smaller things - the history of Barrow itself, what will happen to her house and family. You might know the formal history of rationing, and even some stories about how people got round it, what happened to towns where the economy was booming yet some families were suffering terrible financial hardships. But to read the day-to-day grind, and to hear her tell the stories of her friends and colleagues, brings it completely alive. Some of it is heart-breaking.

There are other books based on material submitted to the Project, and it is still going on - although the format has changed. Now observers are asked to respond to three "directives" a year, asking their views on all sorts of current events, ideas, political and social theories. I did go and have a look at joining, but they have a limited membership and are currently only recruiting "male writers aged 16-44 living in all regions of the UK except the South East and South West. We do accept applications from people who meet two of the three criteria (for example, we would accept female writers aged between 16-44 living in the North)". What I am considering doing is becoming a Friend of the Project, as it is now run by the University of Sussex and is dependent on things like lottery funding.

If Nella's diaries are a harbinger of the books I'm likely to stumble across in 2007, I'm looking at a very good year. ( )