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Non-Fiction books about women’s lives sort of like Call the Midwife but not that

39 replies

UrEatingHamPam · 28/08/2024 09:05

Not sure that’s quite the right thread title but not sure how to describe it!

Can anyone recommend any books sort of like Lark Rise to Candleford or Call the Midwife, not necessarily memoirs but first hand accounts of women’s daily lives, at any point in history really?

I’ve read a few that I’ve seen recommended on Mumsnet on a few other threads and they always hit the spot! Recently these include…..
Life As We Have Known it by Margaret Llewelyn Davies
The Life of Martha Ballard - a midwife in the early 1800’s
The Diary of a Farmers Wife 1796-1797
Below Stairs by Margaret Powell

I work in a big old country house and really like listening to audiobooks about servants lives and imagining what would have been going on where I’m working in days gone by! But there’s quite a lot of these sorts of books around so if anyone can recommend any decent ones (whatever that means, it’s subjective isn’t it!) then I’m all ears!

currently reading The Midwife’s Tale by Nicky Leap which is essentially a collection of interviews from women remembering the handywomen who preceded professional midwife’s and I’m finding it so interesting I’d love more of the same!!!

can anyone help with this niche request or suggest anything else similarly interesting?

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HomeAlonely · 01/12/2024 17:13

Diary of a Provincial Lady? I think her daughter also wrote a book years later.

RedWinePoliticsAndHair · 01/12/2024 11:46

Another vote for Nella Last's diaries. They're fascinating and you find yourself absolutely rooting for her.

MissRoseDurward · 01/12/2024 00:17

Home Fires Burning: The Great War Diaries of Georgina Lee. Georgina was a middle class woman living in London who started to keep a diary at the outbreak of war in 1914 for her son, who was a baby at the time, so he would know what had happened. She writes about her war work, about life in wartime and things she witnessed such as Zeppelin raids and about the experiences of family and friends.

charabang · 30/11/2024 23:47

Hannah Hauxwell: Daughter of the Dales. Very moving.

BestIsWest · 21/11/2024 09:25

@Debrathom me too. I’d forgotten about Hidden Lives which I really loved.

fashionqueen0123 · 20/11/2024 22:50

The Maids Tale by Rose Plummer is great!

Debrathom · 20/11/2024 22:46

BestIsWest · 20/11/2024 22:23

Diary of an Ordinary Woman - Margaret Forster.

Edited

I forgot that one! I love Margaret Forster's writing.

Debrathom · 20/11/2024 22:45

Hidden Lives (non-fiction) and Lady's Maid both by Margaret Forster. The latter is a very convincing fictionalised account of the adult life of the poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning told from the perspective of the maid.
I'd also second the Nella Last diaries.

BestIsWest · 20/11/2024 22:23

Diary of an Ordinary Woman - Margaret Forster.

Whycantisortoutmyusername · 20/11/2024 14:08

The Stepney Doorstep Society by Kate Thompson. It is about the women of the East End from the 1930s, through the war (main focus of the book) and later, all based around the lives of women who lived it and her interviews with them. Remarkable stories.

MichaelAndEagle · 15/09/2024 08:54

JaneJeffer · 28/08/2024 17:58

Can Any Mother Help Me? By Jenna Bailey

Yes this. Loved it!

Potatomashed · 15/09/2024 08:53

Different kind of historical women but I cannot stop raving about clan of the cave bear by Jean M Auel. It gives an amazing perspective of women’s life before civilisation

yikesanotherbooboo · 15/09/2024 08:27

My suggestions have been mentioned but this thread has reminded me to go back and reread some old favourites, thank you.

Gorgonemilezola · 15/09/2024 00:03

SnugglyJumpersMakeItBetter, do you mean Miss Read? I love these - the Fairacre books particularly - 'typhoon tea, for storms in teacups....'

Lillian Beckwith - the Hebridean books are good but she wrote one called 'About my Father's Business' about the family grocery store set in the Black Country in the twenties and thirties.

'Figures in a Bygone Landscape' by Don Haworth

Diary of a Provincial Lady.

Gorgonemilezola · 14/09/2024 23:55

Judith Kerr's 'When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit' and the sequels.

Gorgonemilezola · 14/09/2024 23:54

Monica Dickens, 'One Pair of Hands' and 'One Pair of Feet'.
Rumer Godden's autobiography in 2 volumes, 'A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep', and 'House with Four Rooms'.

nocoolnamesleft · 14/09/2024 23:44

Lady Tan's Circle of Women is a fascinating novel based loosely on a real female 15th century Chinese physician. Caution: includes description of the process/effects of foot binding.

tobee · 04/09/2024 16:22

I recommend A Notable Woman: The Romantic Journals of Jean Lucey Pratt. She was one of the Mass Observation writers featured in Simon Garfield books. He gave her the pseudonym Maggie Joy Blunt. The diaries go from 1925 until her death in 1986.

RisingMist · 04/09/2024 16:21

Tea By The Nursery Fire – Noel Streatfeild

tobee · 04/09/2024 16:18

JaneJeffer · 28/08/2024 17:58

Can Any Mother Help Me? By Jenna Bailey

This is a great book and I've read it many times. I'd love it if it was available in audiobook form, especially if different narrators for the different women members.

tobee · 04/09/2024 16:16

BlossomToLeaves · 28/08/2024 17:00

Twopence to cross the mersey, and the sequels, by Helen Forrester. Her life (slightly adapted) in the depression to the war, after her family moves to Liverpool when her parents go bankrupt. She is kept at home from age 12 or so to look after the other children, in serious poverty.

If you listen on the audiobook of this I think it's a very disappointing listen as the chosen narrator has a broad Scouse accent which is totally at variance with one of the books central themes; Helen Forrester spent the first part of her life in middle class southern England and her accent made her stand out like a sore thumb in the poverty stricken depression era Liverpool she was moved to.

AbsolutelyBarking · 29/08/2024 10:06

Poledra · 28/08/2024 19:40

Nella Last's Diaries- also from the Mass Observation project. There are 3 - Nella Last's War, Nella Last's Peace, and Nella Last in the 1950s. Absolutely fascinating!

I was coming here to suggest these!

SnugglyJumpersMakeItBetter · 28/08/2024 19:59

'Nella Last's War' is a real-life diary from a British housewife during WW2. It's very insightful but she struggles with anxiety/depression (reasonably enough given the circumstances) so it's not really uplifting!

The Little Village School books maybe? Officially fiction but based on the writer's memoirs from her teaching career. I think set in the 50s?

Poledra · 28/08/2024 19:40

Nella Last's Diaries- also from the Mass Observation project. There are 3 - Nella Last's War, Nella Last's Peace, and Nella Last in the 1950s. Absolutely fascinating!

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