Category: writing
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What’s a teenager?
Originally posted on Outset Publishing: It might be strange to think about a time not so very long ago when the term ‘teenager’ didn’t exist. Now we accept it, but in 1940s Britain young people aged between thirteen and nineteen lived a very different life to the life they might live today. School leaving age…
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Don’t stop for breath
Originally posted on Outset Publishing: Factories offering no protection to their workers might be something we associate with Dickensian Britain. Workers subjected to long hours in harsh, polluting conditions – surely this belonged to the 19th century? Sadly, no. Thousands of factory and mine workers in 1940s Britain were subjected to dangerous working conditions that…
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Combatting polio
Originally posted on Outset Publishing: There were many horrors to contend with in 1940s Britain and cruelly it was often children who suffered, despite adults’ overwhelming desire to protect them. For during the latter part of that decade there were annual polio epidemics, striking down thousands of people in Britain – many of them children.…
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No more than 2.4
Originally posted on Outset Publishing: I’m sure there are many things that might trigger a rise in the birth rate – but consider these particular influencing factors for post-war Britain: couples were finally able to celebrate the end of six years of war wives and girlfriends could welcome the return of a loved one from…
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This will do nicely…
Originally posted on Outset Publishing: Consider how it must have been after the Second World War for millions of families who were all desperate for somewhere to live – somewhere ‘fit for purpose’, many having lost everything during the wartime London Blitz and similar devastation across the country. House building on a grand scale was…
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Lessons to learn
Originally posted on Outset Publishing: ‘A landmark has been set up in English education’ Times Educational Supplement, 1944 Such was the general reception to the Butler Act of 1944. The paper’s editor went on to comment that ‘there shall be equality of opportunity, and diversity of provision without impairment of the social unity’. So why…
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Choosing four wheels over two
Originally posted on Outset Publishing: If you wanted to travel around Britain in the 1940s it’s likely you would have been walking, cycling or travelling on public transport. And if you were a critical worker, delivering milk to doorsteps early mornings, then you might even still be relying on a horse-drawn cart. The average distance…
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I do…or I shouldn’t have…
Originally posted on Outset Publishing: The perils of war concentrate the mind when it comes to romance. If your sweetheart is about to go off to fight and you couldn’t be sure when or if you would see them again, then it would make sense to confirm your love for each other by ‘tying the…
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Crossing the world
Originally posted on Outset Publishing: After the Second World War Britain saw arrivals of folk from all across the globe – many from Commonwealth countries who were intrigued to discover what the ‘mother country’ was like. But it was also a time when some British people decided to leave – to emigrate. The situation in…
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Better than a tin bath
Originally posted on Outset Publishing: When I dig around in my tin of old photos I find a picture of my brother – just a toddler at the time – standing in the kitchen sink to be washed. In 1940s Britain this would have been a typical scene in many houses as few had indoor…
Isabella Muir 