Nella Last

Nella, now in her 60s, writes about the 1950s and reveals more about life with her increasingly troublesome husband. She offers a moving and humorous insight into the experiences of ordinary people at a time that shaped the society we live in today.

Nella Last an ordinary housewife living in Barrow-in-Furness wrote a diary for the Mass Observation Project, the social research organisation, during and after WW2. Here we learn about the austerity of life in postwar Britain. Through it all her humour and strength of character shine out.

Nella Last was a volunteer with the Mass Observation project and her diary chronicles the concerns and problems facing ordinary families during the War. In the diary she writes about all aspects of everyday life and reveals herself to have very modern attitudes on the role of women.