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Original poster

Diary of a Provincial Lady - request for more diary books

36 replies

Trills · 20/12/2014 16:08

I was recommended this by a friend while on holiday and loved it.

Full set 77p on Kindle

I'd be very surprised if Helen Fielding has not read it - some of the turns of phrase are rather Bridget-Jones-ish.

I'd now really like to read more only-mildly-fictional diary-style books, because I very much enjoyed hearing more about everyday life in the 20s and 30s, and think it a fun way to learn more "history".

Any suggestions?

OP posts:
riverboat1 · 21/12/2014 08:39

Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith. Records the life of a London family headed up by Charles Pooter, a clerk of some kind, in the late 19th century. Its REALLY funny.

MuseumOfHam · 21/12/2014 00:22

Our Hidden Lives - a selection of mass observation diary extracts. Ticks your "nothing much happens" box, but in an utterly compelling way.

Original poster
Trills · 21/12/2014 00:12

I have put all of these on my Amazon wishlist.

I would have started with the Provincial Daughter, but it's not available electronically, so I'm going to go with Margaret Forster (thanks MAME )

OP posts:
Original poster
Trills · 21/12/2014 00:06

"Nothing much happens" is exactly what I am looking for.

And her ACTUAL daughter! How wonderful. Is it illy that I am extra pleased at her being called Dashwood? (Sense and Sensibility)

Off to see how many of these can be acquired on a Kindle...

OP posts:
Dapplegrey · 20/12/2014 22:44

France's Partridge's diaries run to several volumes, including 'A Pacifist's War' which covers her life with her husband and son during the second war. Nothing much happens in these dairies, but I found them very readable.

mmack · 20/12/2014 22:38

Her daughter, Rosamund Dashwood, wrote a book called Provincial Daughter. It is laugh-out-loud funny. I got it for Christmas a few years ago in a set of Virago Modern Classics that I bought from the Book People website. The set also included Pat Barker's Union Street which made me sob uncontrollably.

Takver · 20/12/2014 20:50

Also, not exactly the same, but have you read 'Can Any Mother Help Me' - it's excerpts from a kind of mumsnet of the 1930s conducted by post.

Guyropes · 20/12/2014 18:09

"Dear girl" actually letters from Edwardian times. Fascinating history. Can't remember the editor though, pub women's press.

Takver · 20/12/2014 18:02

Not 20s/30s, but what about Letters from a Fainthearted Feminist by Jill Tweedie - very much the same sort of humour. (And I guess depending on your age it could count as history Grin )

DuchessofMalfi · 20/12/2014 17:21

Slightly later time period, but Nella Last's diary from 1940s is good. She wrote them for Mass Observation and are an interesting account of living through WW2.

MiddleAgeMiddleEngland · 20/12/2014 16:49

Margaret Forster's Diary of an Ordinary Woman. It's really good, I've read it about three times. It more-or-less spans the twentieth century so will cover the time you say.

There's something I'd like to tell you about it but can't or I'd spoil it.

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