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Cross-section of a life: the bombs exposed and revealed women's interior-based existence as never before.
How to look stylish in a gas-mask. The advertisers of this necessity promoted it alarmingly: 'The ravages of gas can be frightful, especially to women..'.
'Don't look now, old girl, but your undercarriage is coming down.' Elasticated underwear often gave way due to the rubber shortage. Her suave date has grown accustomed to RAF vocabulary…
Women's Institute members bottling jams and jellies. The making of preserves exemplified the frugal ethos of the older generation.
Night clubs and dance halls were humming throughout the war. Here, a black US serviceman in civvies teaches his partner to jitterbug.
Happy holidays in the long, hot, post-war summer of 1947.
The harvest of peace, July 1948: the inauguration of the National Health Service.
Feeling like top dog in Dior's New Look: depicted in Punch magazine, 1948.
“ Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes
"As social history, it bears comparison with David Kynaston’s Family Britain. Nicholson has the same knack of seamlessly piecing gripping individual stories into a panorama of everyday life." ”
“ Millions Like Us
“It's hard to single out stories from this rich, entwined narrative, which moves in and out of the lives of an absorbing cast of characters... Vividly entertaining, uplifting and humbling, Millions Like Us deserves to be a bestseller...” ”
“ Singled Out
“It is high time to dig [this generation] up again, salute their memory and listen to their sad and uncomplaining voices unmuffled at last in Nicholson’s brave, humane and honest book.” ”
“ Among the Bohemians
“An extraordinarily rich, provocative study. [Nicholson’s] substantial cast is stage-managed superbly… This book is not just good fun. It raises profound questions about our lives.” ”