Thank your mother very much, and assure her that strangers in America think this is fascinating!
I've been reading Patricia Wentworth's series of Miss Silver mysteries, written from the late 30s to 1961. They're not all that good as mysteries, but they're *great* for social history: unlike Christie & others, they're all written & set in particular years, so you can see how people's lives are changing. Also unlike Christie & Tey, Wentworth clearly voted Labour and always notices how much housework needs to be done and who does it.
Wentworth's stories are almost set in the South, and from 1940 through the mid-50s people are eating a LOT of fish, which was unrationed: lunches and dinners at a country house (not a stately home, but Nice) will have an egg dish for the first course and a fish dish for the main course. Did your mom's family eat fish much, either fresh or tinned?
Another question! In several books about the British working classes before WW2, it's said that people ate a dripping on bread, as a kind of sandwich (e.g. Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier. Did her family eat dripping? If so, where did they get it from? One of the "perks" of being a cook was that you had the right to sell leftover dripping, & I wonder if that's where working class people got it from.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2023-02-07 03:00 am (UTC)I've been reading Patricia Wentworth's series of Miss Silver mysteries, written from the late 30s to 1961. They're not all that good as mysteries, but they're *great* for social history: unlike Christie & others, they're all written & set in particular years, so you can see how people's lives are changing. Also unlike Christie & Tey, Wentworth clearly voted Labour and always notices how much housework needs to be done and who does it.
Wentworth's stories are almost set in the South, and from 1940 through the mid-50s people are eating a LOT of fish, which was unrationed: lunches and dinners at a country house (not a stately home, but Nice) will have an egg dish for the first course and a fish dish for the main course. Did your mom's family eat fish much, either fresh or tinned?
Another question! In several books about the British working classes before WW2, it's said that people ate a dripping on bread, as a kind of sandwich (e.g. Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier. Did her family eat dripping? If so, where did they get it from? One of the "perks" of being a cook was that you had the right to sell leftover dripping, & I wonder if that's where working class people got it from.