Bargain of the day - Can any mother help me?

 

    I've just spotted that today's 'Kindle Daily Deal' is Can Any Mother Help Me? by Jenna Bailey. I read it on publication five years ago and loved it, so I'd urge you to snap it up for today's bargain price of £0.99 if you're at all interested in the social history of the 20th. century and particularly women's lives and the domestic front. Here's what I wrote about it back in 2007:

In 1935 a young woman wrote a letter to the magazine "Nursery World": "Can any mother help me? I live a very lonely life ...... I adore reading, but with no library am very limited with books.... Can any reader suggest an occupation that will intrigue me and exclude 'thinking' and cost nothing!" This plea struck a chord with women around the country who wrote back expressing their own, similar frustrations; the result was a private magazine.

Now Jenna Bailey has discovered the amazing archive that is the work of the Co-operative Correspondence Club or CCC, as the magazine was called.

For almost fifty years, members  - who adopted pseudonyms - circulated articles, all edited and bound in hand-embroidered linen covers by the indefatigable and meticulous 'Ad Astra'. Subject matter concentrated on what concerned them most personally, so the result is a hugely valuable social history of women's domestic lives from the 1930s on, now made public for the first time in Jenna's book Can Any Mother Help Me?

This was a truly affecting read. I found myself involved from the start with the women's individual stories, sharing their joys and sorrows, amazed at their courage in immensely difficult times, surprised at their candour, particularly where marriage was the issue, and cheered by the very supportive nature of the whole enterprise.

Had the technology existed, these women would have been the bloggers of their day. They left comments on one another's articles, private friendships beyond the confines of the paper 'club' developed, and practical help was often given in addition to sound advice. They were articulate, generally highly educated, often seeking an outlet which their lives as wives and mothers could not provide, but which their mutual correspondence apparently could.

One member, 'Accidia', makes the point: "Relieved of the inevitability of sink and duster and oven, one could be so much more creative in one's relationship with other people", and this seems to set the tone for what was written over the years. The result is an impressive testament to the way the women 'just got on' with things, expressing themselves - albeit safely  - within the group, but bringing an acute sense of perspective to often trying circumstances.

At the end of her life and in poor health, 'Ad Astra' decided the CCC papers she had kept over the years had become a burden to her and resolved to burn them. Fortunately, she told another member, 'Elektra', of her plan, and Elektra intervened and rescued the articles, later donating them to the Mass Observation Archive at the University of Sussex, which is where Jenna Bailey found them.  Elektra is now 101, and still going strong. Thank goodness she stepped in, and thank goodness she and her fellow members took the trouble to put pen to paper so often and for so long; the result is remarkable.

Comments

[Karen]

Thanks for the tip. I've only read a couple of chapters, but so far it's fascinating.

[B R Wombat]

Yes, thanks for mentioning this, an irresistible bargain.

[LizF]

I have a print copy of this, bought when it came out in paperback but (typically for me I'm afraid) still unread.
Really feel like reading it now so I will have to work out which of my numerous book shelves it is on!

[MzTallulah]

I bought it when you first wrote about and found it fascinating, so I second your recommendation (despite not having a Kindle and living outside the UK, which means I could not take advantage of the deal)!