Author Archives: Isabella Muir

Originally posted on Outset Publishing:
Nowadays, for many people, an annual holiday – or even several annual holidays – are not just welcomed, they are accepted as the norm. Indeed, when the Covid pandemic meant that we were restricted to our home territory, at times even to our home town, then we felt hard done…

Originally posted on Outset Publishing:
From the 1920s onwards the wireless set provided an increasing number of families with an opportunity to listen to music, drama and news broadcasts. Around half of the British population were able to settle down in the evening and enjoy a musical variety show, a comedy, or a play, while…

Originally posted on Outset Publishing:
During the Second World War years there was a critical need for Britain to find ways to be self-sufficient in terms of food. With enemy blockades around our shores many of the goods that were usually imported were unable to reach us. By January 1941 the usual food supply coming…

Originally posted on Outset Publishing:
With most men of working age being called up to fight during the Second World War there were numerous industries that found themselves in desperate need of people to fill the vacancies. As a result women stepped out of the home into the workplace. Of course, prior to 1939, some…

Originally posted on Outset Publishing:
It’s hard to imagine a world without the life-saving antibiotic, penicillin. Yet, it was only around a hundred years ago that Alexander Fleming first realised its importance. During the First World War Fleming realised the use of antiseptics was not preventing infections, particularly in deep wounds. And it was a…

Originally posted on Outset Publishing:
On 5th July 1948 the British National Health Service was born. The NHS is such an intrinsic part of our country that it is difficult to imagine a time when it didn’t exist. But it’s also fascinating to note the timing of its creation. Britain was coming out of the…

Originally posted on Outset Publishing:
If you are fascinated by social history, as am I, then having a chance to listen to people’s voices from past decades is more than enlightening – it’s inspiring. Such must have been the thinking behind a social research project, initiated in 1937, called the Mass Observation Project. Three former…

Originally posted on Outset Publishing:
Squadron Leader N G Pedley, the CO of No. 131 Squadron RAF, about to set out on a sweep in his Supermarine Spitfire Mk VB from Merston, a satellite airfield of Tangmere in Sussex, June 1942. If you love watching old movies, you may well have seen that classic biopic…

Originally posted on Outset Publishing:
Much has been said about the extent to which music lifts the spirits. It was Friedrich Nietzsche who said: ‘Without music, life would be a mistake’ Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols And I for one wholeheartedly agree! So, seeing this picture of a group of women carpenters from World War…

Originally posted on Outset Publishing:
When young men joined the armed forces at the beginning of World War 2 there were fewer than three million cars on British roads – compared with some forty million today! By the 1930s horse-drawn vehicles had given way to the motor car. Motor cars now offered their drivers the…