The Story of Women in the 1950s

Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes

In Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes, Virginia Nicholson tells the story of women in the 1950s: a time before the Pill, when divorce spelled scandal and two-piece swimsuits caused mass alarm. 
 
Turn the page back to the mid-twentieth century, and discover a world peopled by women with radiant smiles, clean pinafores and gleaming coiffures; a promised land of batch-baking, maraschino cherries and brightly hued plastic. A world where the darker side of the decade encompassed rampant prostitution, a notorious murder, and the threat of nuclear disaster. 
 
Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes reconstructs the real 1950s, through the eyes of the women who lived it. Step back in time to when our grandmothers scrubbed their doorsteps, cared for their families, lived, laughed, loved and struggled. 
 
This is their story.

Virginia Nicholson gets us closer than we have ever been before to the complicated day-to-day reality of women's lives during that still controversial decade, the 1950s

Nicholson handles her material with confidence, sympathy and, ultimately, optimism that for most women things have improved, so that the abiding emotion is not gloom but, in my case, admiration for my mother's generation and gratitude that it was so much better for ours

Nicholson uses vivid contemporary sources and oral testimony to show the constraints under which so many women lived. Like David Kynaston's Family Britain . . . Nicholson has the same knack of seamlessly piecing gripping individual stories into a panorama of ordinary life

An important and humane book of female social history . . . In this work, Nicholson musters voices to profound and deeply political effect. Much of the material in this book will be familiar to women over 55: we were born into this world. For younger women, though, Nicholson's book should be necessary reading, to remind them how far we have travelled.

An uplifting and heartwarming read

Nicholson spells out the contradictions of this era so well: a new world dressed in old clothes

Remarkable. To today's young, it'll sound like life on another planet

The achievements of the women in this book haunt us and move us to admiration

Insightful social history. Mixing research with a wealth of anecdote, Nicholson brings history to vivid and touching life

Poignantly illustrates how the women of the 1950s yearned for the innovative technology of the era to liberate them from repetitive drudgery

Indefatigably researched, moving and perceptive, Nicholson handles her wide-ranging material with sympathy, humour and a lightness of touch. Her enviable gift for interpretation and storytelling is balanced by first-hand accounts of those women of the 1950s, their youth so relatively recent, who have trusted her with the intimate details of their lives

There is certainly warmth in [Virginia Nicholson's] curiosity as she delves into the stories of her mother's generation . . . Nicholson's judgements are rightly and often amusingly sharp . . . Her skill as an interviewer leaves her subjects revealing long-kept secrets and her flair as a writer makes us care about these young women and what happens to them

Richly detailed. We hear from women working as air hostesses, housewives, biscuit packers, prostitutes, academics, models, secretaries and Buttlin's Redcoats. We discover how women felt entering beatuty contests, having to give up work on marriage, being defined by their husband's jobs, becomming unmarried mothers, enduring racism, marching against nuclear weapons and desiring other women. Nicholson's own commentary, in turns compassionate and wry, holds everything together

A fascinating look at the lives of ordinary women in 1950s Britain

A ground-breaking book, richly nuanced with titbits of information, insight and understanding

Remarkably perceptive and well-researched . . . Virginia Nicholson has produced another extraordinarily interesting work, sensitive, intelligent and well-written

An inspiring book, lovingly researched, well-written and humane . . . the period is beautifully caught

The popular image is of a world where women wore little frilled pinafores with immaculately coiffed hair and happy smiles as they dusted, swept and baked . . . But Nicholson's book reveals a much darker side of life

Telegraph, Best Non-Fiction Books of 2015

Gripping, constantly surprising: a page-turner. We hear at first hand the life stories of women from different walks of life, from factory workers to debs. Each story draws you right in and it's always a wrench to move on

Virginia Nicholson was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, grew up in Yorkshire and Sussex, and studied at Cambridge University. She lived abroad in France and Italy, then worked as a documentary researcher for the BBC. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, her books include the acclaimed social histories Among the Bohemians, Singled Out, Millions Like Us, and Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes. She is married with three grown-up children and lives in Sussex.

Turn the page back to the mid-twentieth century, and discover a world peopled by women with radiant smiles, clean pinafores and gleaming coiffures; a promised land of batch-baking, maraschino cherries and brightly hued plastic. A world where the darker side of the decade encompasses rampant prostitution, a notorious murder, and the threat of nuclear disaster. 
 
In Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes Virginia Nicholson reconstructs the real 1950s, through the eyes of the women who lived it. Step back in time to where our grandmothers scrubbed their doorsteps, cared for their families, lived, laughed, loved and struggled. 
 
This is their story.

Women's Lives in the Second World War

Millions Like Us

In Millions Like Us Virginia Nicholson tells the story of the women's Second World War, through a host of individual women's experiences. 
 
We tend to see the Second World War as a man's war, featuring Spitfire crews and brave deeds on the Normandy beaches. But in conditions of "Total War" millions of women - in the Services and on the Home Front - demonstrated that they were cleverer, more broad-minded and altogether more complex than anyone had ever guessed. 
 
Millions Like Us tells the story of how these women loved, suffered, laughed, grieved and dared; how they re-made their world in peacetime. And how they would never be the same again ... 
 
'Vividly entertaining, uplifting and humbling, Millions Like Us deserves to be a bestseller' Bel Mooney, The Daily Mail 
 
'Passionate, fascinating, profoundly sympathetic' Artemis Cooper, Evening Standard 
 
Virginia Nicholson was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and grew up in Yorkshire and Sussex. She studied at Cambridge University and lived abroad in France and Italy, then worked as a documentary researcher for BBC Television. Her books include the acclaimed social history Among the Bohemians - Experiments in Living 1900-1939, and Singled Out - How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War, both published by Penguin in 2002 and 2007. She is married to a writer, has three children and lives in Sussex.

Virginia Nicholson was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and grew up in Yorkshire and Sussex. She studied at Cambridge University and lived abroad in France and Italy, then worked as a documentary researcher for BBC Television. Her books include the acclaimed social history Among the Bohemians - Experiments in Living 1900-1939, and Singled Out - How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War, both published by Penguin in 2002 and 2007. She is married to a writer, has three children and lives in Sussex.

We tend to see the Second World War as a man's war, featuring Spitfire crews and brave deeds on the Normandy beaches. But in conditions of "Total War" millions of women - in the Services and on the Home Front - demonstrated that they were cleverer, more broad-minded and altogether more complex than anyone had ever guessed. 
 
In Millions Like Us Virginia Nicholson tells the story of the women's war, through a host of individual women's experiences. She tells how they loved, suffered, laughed, grieved and dared; how they re-made their world in peacetime. And how they would never be the same again ...

How Two Million Women Survived without Men After the First World War

Singled Out

The touching and beautifully told story of the women who were left alone after World War I - a remarkable generation of women who were changed by war; and in their turn helped change society

Virginia Nicholson's Singled Out is the touching and beautifully told story of the women who were left alone after World War I - a remarkable generation of women who were changed by war; and in their turn helped change society. 
 
In 1919 a generation of young women discovered that there were, quite simply, not enough men to go round, and the statistics confirmed it. After the 1921 Census, the press ran alarming stories of the 'Problem of the Surplus Women - Two Million who can never become Wives...'. This book is about those women, and about how they were forced, by a tragedy of historic proportions, to stop depending on men for their income, their identity and their future happiness. 
 
'This is a ground-breaking book, richly nuanced with titbits of information, insight and understanding' Daily Mail 
 
'Remarkably perceptive and well-researched ... Virginia Nicholson has produced another extraordinarily interesting work, sensitive, intelligent and well-written' Sunday Telegraph 
 
'This in an inspiring book, lovingly researched, well-written and humane... the period is beautifully caught' Economist 
 
'Brave, humane and honest' Observer 
 
Virginia Nicholson was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She has worked as a documentary researcher for BBC Television and her first book, Charleston - A Bloomsbury House and Garden (written in collaboration with her father, Quentin Bell), was an account of the Sussex home of her grandmother, the painter Vanessa Bell. Her second book, Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939, was published by Penguin in 2002. She lives in Sussex.

This is a ground-breaking book, richly nuanced with titbits of information, insight and understanding

Remarkably perceptive and well-researched ... Virginia Nicholson has produced another extraordinarily interesting work, sensitive, intelligent and well-written

This in an inspiring book, lovingly researched, well-written and humane... the period is beautifully caught

Virginia Nicholson was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She has worked as a documentary researcher for BBC Television and her first book, Charleston &ndash; A Bloomsbury House and Garden (written in collaboration with her father, Quentin Bell), was an account of the Sussex home of her grandmother, the painter Vanessa Bell. Her second book, Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939, was published by Penguin in 2002. She lives in Sussex.

In 1919 a generation of young women discovered that there were, quite simply, not enough men to go round, and the statistics confirmed it. After the 1921 Census, the press ran alarming stories of the 'Problem of the Surplus Women - Two Million who can never become Wives...'. This book is about those women, and about how they were forced, by a tragedy of historic proportions, to stop depending on men for their income, their identity and their future happiness.

Experiments in Living 1900-1939

Among the Bohemians

'Interesting, gorgeous, wonderful.... this book displays the best of bohemia itself - playful, dazzling, original' Julie Burchill, Spectator

Virginia Nicholson's Among the Bohemians is a portrait of England's artistic community in the first half of the twentieth century, engaged in a grand experiment. 
 
Subversive, eccentric and flamboyant - the Bohemians ate garlic and didn't always wash; they painted and danced and didn't care what people thought. They sent their children to co-ed schools; explored homosexuality and Free Love. They were often drunk, broke and hungry but they were rebels. 
 
In this fascinating book Virginia Nicholson examines the way the Bohemians refashioned the way we live our lives. 
 
'Interesting, gorgeous, wonderful.... this book displays the best of bohemia itself - playful, dazzling, original' Julie Burchill, Spectator 
 
'Racy, vivacious, warm-hearted. Offers an illuminating and well-researched portrait of life among the artists, a century ago' Miranda Seymour, TLS 
 
Virginia Nicholson was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She has worked as a documentary researcher for BBC Television and her first book, Charleston - A Bloomsbury House and Garden (written in collaboration with her father, Quentin Bell), was an account of the Sussex home of her grandmother, the painter Vanessa Bell. Her second book, Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939, was published by Penguin in 2002. She lives in Sussex.

Virginia Nicholson is the granddaughter of Vanessa Bell. A freelance jouralist and researcher, she is Deputy Chairman of The Charleston Trust. Her first book was Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Garden. Virginia Nicholson lives in Sussex.

'Racy, vivacious, warm-hearted. Offers an illuminating and well-researched portrait of life among the artists, a century ago' TLS 
 
Subversive, eccentric and flamboyant, the artistic community in the first half of the twentieth century were ingaged in a grand experiment. 
The Bohemians ate garlic and didn't always wash; they painted and danced and didn't care what people thought. They sent their children to co-ed schools; explored homosexuality and Free Love. They were often drunk, broke and hungry but they were rebels. 
 
In this fascinating book Virginia Nicholson examines the way the Bohemians refashioned the way we live our lives.

Virginia Nicholson

Virginia Nicholson is one of the great social historians of our time, and How Was It For You? is another jewel in her crown. No one else makes makes history this fun

They say that if you remember the 1960s you weren't really there. But if you really weren't, then the next best thing is to read this fascinating book. With the meticulous attention worthy of a Vidal Sassoon haircut, Virginia Nicholson has shaped her dazzling kaleidoscope of facts, feelings and observations, into a razor-sharp account of the women who lived through that tumultuous decade

Essential reading for all those who lived through it, and for those who came after

Marina Lewycka, author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

Intimate, immersive, often moving, How Was It For You? subtly but powerfully subverts complacent male assumptions about a legendary decade

How Was It For You? brings it all back. As always Virginia Nicholson's book is full of fascinating history and fascinating new material. It makes it feel like the Sixties have never been away, which they never have been, as far as I'm concerned. Wonderful

A hugely ambitious, kaleidoscope of a book, written in a sympathetic but also hard-headed tone that captures squalor and tragedy as well as glamour

Virginia Nicholson's social history of the lives of women during the 1960s is an absorbing study of an extraordinary age. Beautifully written and intensively researched, it covers a wide range of characters and many levels of society, uncovering with remarkable perspicacity a world of rebellion and change. I am sure How Was It for You? will remain a vital study for many years to come

Written with verve, wit and empathy, this account of the 1960s skilfully interweaves the lives of individual women with broader social and cultural changes. Virginia Nicholson nudges the reader to reconsider the well- beaten tracks and to reflect upon out-of-the-way experiences. Best of all How Was It For You? neither idealises nor excoriates the bouncy, controversial decade

Every baby boomer should read this great and wonderfully revelatory book if only to shout, 'Ah yes, that's exactly what it was like for me!'

For those of us who missed the 60's, Virginia Nicholson catapults this era to roaring, authentic life. Rich with intimate voices and a keen edged analysis of the public perceptions at work, this book brilliantly evokes the struggle between the urgent change and the heavily freighted forces of tradition that defined this singularly compelling decade. Read it. It is unputdownable

A tremendous achievement... a triumph of research and organisation - but also of sympathy

An important and humane book of female social history

The Times on Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes

A ground-breaking book, richly nuanced with titbits of information, insight and understanding

Virginia Nicholson is the outstanding recorder of British lives in the twentieth century. She has told us how it was for British women - and therefore of course for men and children - in the twentieth century. The formidable research and sympathetic understanding of so many different lives make this account of the 1960s - that swinging, sexy, revolutionary decade - the most vivid and moving of all her works. A fascinating decade, a fascinating book

I loved this. Yes, the 1960s were good fun, sometimes. But Virginia Nicholson forensically unpicks what "promiscuity" really meant for flower-chicks, fearful of seeming un-cool. They were perpetuating a society as patriarchal and phallocentric as ever - even in the counter-culture. I was there, and she's right. Amazingly right about so many things. Roll on the 1970s when things did change - but that's for another of her excellent books

Sparklingly readable . . . Having read Nicholson's magisterial and sensuous overview of the decade, I feel I'm floating above the Sixties (a bit like Lucy in the Sky) and looking down on them with a new understanding

This vivid comprehensive study brought so many memories flooding back to me! It's a treat for those of us who were around in the sixties, and delightfully instructive for those who weren't

Sparkling . . . there is a wonderfully diverse range of voices . . . we have a long way to go, but reading this book made me grateful for how far we have come

Women, Sex, Love and Power in the 1960s

Turn the page back to the 1960s, a decade whose radiant light-show seemed to shower everything it touched with stardust: in the midst of Beatlemania, Penguin Books are found 'Not Guilty' in the Lady Chatterley trial, Mary Quant introduces the mini-skirt, and the Pill becomes available on the NHS. Time magazine coins the phrase 'Swinging London', the first female High Court Judge is appointed and abortion is legalized. 
 
But did the world really change for women? And what did the women of the 60s ultimately take away from a youth supposedly given over to sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll? This book is an act of homage and a journey for those engaging in similar questions today. How Was It For You? reconstructs the real 1960s, through the eyes of the women who lived it. From Floella Benjamin and Pattie Boyd to ordinary, remarkable women, this is their story.

Virginia Nicholson

Praise for How Was It For You?

Virginia Nicholson is one of the great social historians of our time, and How Was It For You? is another jewel in her crown. No one else makes makes history this fun

They say that if you remember the 1960s you weren't really there. But if you really weren't, then the next best thing is to read this fascinating book. With the meticulous attention worthy of a Vidal Sassoon haircut ...

Essential reading for all those who lived through it, and for those who came after

Virginia Nicholson is one of the great social historians of our time, and How Was It For You? is another jewel in her crown. No one else makes makes history this fun

They say that if you remember the 1960s you weren't really there. But if you really weren't, then the next best thing is to read this fascinating book. With the meticulous attention worthy of a Vidal Sassoon haircut ...

Essential reading for all those who lived through it, and for those who came after

Virginia Nicholson is one of the great social historians of our time, and How Was It For You? is another jewel in her crown. No one else makes makes history this fun

They say that if you remember the 1960s you weren't really there. But if you really weren't, then the next best thing is to read this fascinating book. With the meticulous attention worthy of a Vidal Sassoon haircut ...

Essential reading for all those who lived through it, and for those who came after

Books by Virginia Nicholson

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