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Kate Macdonald

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Category: fashion history

Sarah Lonsdale, Rebel Women Between The Wars

I pre-ordered this book because I’ve been waiting for it for a very long time. Lonsdale has been researching women journalists and journalism in British fiction for much of her career as an academic at City University London, and before that was a journalist writing for a variety of papers and magazines. Rebel Women Between … Continue reading Sarah Lonsdale, Rebel Women Between The Wars →

Kate 20thC, baroque and dramatic, biography, community life, Edwardian, fashion history, feminism, getting published, history, letters, memoirs / diaries, outdoor adventure, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, Sarah Lonsdale, technology, the life of the times, the world of work, wartime 1 Comment November 7, 2020November 7, 2020

Penelope Lively, A House Unlocked

Once again, I am delighted and impressed by Penelope Lively's effortless skill in winding me into her story. In this case, it really is her story. A House Unlocked is her ruminative ramble through British (and Russian) history, prompted by objects, plants and memories of her grandmother's house in rural Somerset, where Lively spent much … Continue reading Penelope Lively, A House Unlocked →

Kate 20thC, architecture, art, autobiography, biography, community life, family saga, fashion history, feminism, history, memoirs / diaries, nature, Penelope Lively, political / social commentary 2 Comments August 5, 2020

Colette, My Mother’s House

I love Colette's writing, though I've not yet managed to read her most scandalous novels about Claudine. Nor have I yet seen the Keira Knightley biopic; undoubtedly I'll get around to them. My Colette collection consists of her two Chéri novels, Julie de Carneilhan, Chance Acquaintances, The Other Woman, The Vagabond, Gigi and The Cat: all short works … Continue reading Colette, My Mother’s House →

Kate 19thC, 20thC, animals, architecture, autobiography, biography, Colette, community life, essays, family saga, fashion history, history, humour, literary history, memoirs / diaries, nature, outdoor adventure, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, short stories, the life of the times 6 Comments July 6, 2019

Business as Usual: Selfridges in the 1930s

Business as Usual, a very enjoyable novel of 1933 by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford, is about a world of working women in London in the early 1930s, with the breadline looming very close, and the terror of knowing that one week's salary lies between you and the street. Pennies are counted, stockings are darned, … Continue reading Business as Usual: Selfridges in the 1930s →

Kate 20thC, Ann Stafford, community life, fashion history, feminism, humour, Jane Oliver, letters, middlebrow, middlebrow studies, political / social commentary, sociology, the life of the times, the world of work 7 Comments October 3, 2018April 12, 2019

Clair Wills, Lovers and Strangers. An Immigrant History of Post-War Britain

I bought this book because I wanted to patch the gaps in my reading about immigration, and Lovers and Strangers deals with the 1950s to the present day.  Although the book is marketed as focused on the Windrush generation, it's much more complex than that, and does a very welcome job of showing how immigration … Continue reading Clair Wills, Lovers and Strangers. An Immigrant History of Post-War Britain →

Kate 21stC, autobiography, Clair Wills, community life, drinking, fashion history, feminism, history, letters, memoirs / diaries, outdoor adventure, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, the life of the times, the world of work, travelogue, wartime Leave a comment September 3, 2018

The Book of Beauty

Many years ago I bought a curiosity in a book sale: The Book of Beauty, published in 1961 by the newspaper magnate George Newnes, and edited by Eileen Allen. It’s still available on rare book sites but I’ve never seen it anywhere else, and it has fascinated me. The photographs are particularly arresting, the kind of … Continue reading The Book of Beauty →

Kate 20thC, fashion history, feminism, middlebrow studies, political / social commentary, sociology, terribly refined, the life of the times, time travel, vaguely horror 1 Comment July 30, 2018July 29, 2018

The Countryside Companion

I found this pleasingly hefty but slim volume in The Beaufort Bookshop in Bath, two days after we'd moved (always check out your new city's second-hand bookshops). I do like old editions of nature books, and have a particular keenness for the post-Second World War period, when rationing could be bypassed by going to the … Continue reading The Countryside Companion →

Kate 20thC, animals, architecture, community life, essays, fashion history, history, nature, outdoor adventure, photography, political / social commentary, sociology, the life of the times, Tom Stephenson 1 Comment May 5, 2018

Rumer Godden, The Greengage Summer

This 1958 novel crackles with foreboding. It is based on the apparently artless retelling by a teenage girl of a summer spent in France with her elder sister and their younger siblings. It seethes with barely understood sexuality, and, in the absence of any reliable and responsible adults, the dangers that Joss and her sister … Continue reading Rumer Godden, The Greengage Summer →

Kate 20thC, bildungsroman, community life, detective, drinking, fashion history, nature, outdoor adventure, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, Rumer Godden, the life of the times 13 Comments December 27, 2017

Edith Morley’s Before and After. Reminiscences of a Working Life

This is a memoir by the first female professor in the UK, Edith Morley, Professor of English Language at the University of Reading. It’s an essential read for anyone exploring the history of women’s higher education in Britain, and for those keen on reliving the struggles of women to make headway in a profession that … Continue reading Edith Morley’s Before and After. Reminiscences of a Working Life →

Kate 19thC, 20thC, Dorothy Richardson, Edith Morley, Edwardian, fashion history, feminism, history, literary history, memoirs / diaries, middlebrow studies, oneupmanship, political / social commentary, the life of the times, the world of work, wartime 1 Comment October 2, 2017September 30, 2017

Negroland, by Margo Jefferson

Negroland is a memoir of growing up in the 1950s and 1960s as an upper-class black girl in Chicago. It’s about race, class, position, white socks, prejudice, hair oil and its stains, integration, politics, fabulous clothes, architecture, representation, style, standards and history. Jefferson mixes poetry and lyrics with historical extracts and retellings of events from … Continue reading Negroland, by Margo Jefferson →

Kate 20thC, architecture, autobiography, bildungsroman, community life, family saga, fashion history, history, Margo Jefferson, political / social commentary, the life of the times, wartime 3 Comments April 27, 2017August 17, 2017

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