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WW2 Reading
Feb. 8th, 2023 03:36 pmIn response to Rachel's question on reading:
All of Mum's family was literate, as was generally true for the village.
Her father didn't read at all. He listened to the radio or played the piano - he didn't read music but could play and sing by ear. Usually show tunes. He didn't like modern music.
My grandmother read as much as possible, mainly magazines such as Woman's Own and Women's Weekly. She had three children and a baby during the war so she did well to read at all. These magazines were borrowed and passed on. They were also important as they contained knitting patterns. Mum also adds that there was a black out during the war and lights mustn't be shown. Her Uncle Henry was the policeman who enforced this. Keeping lights low so they didn't show through the black out curtains wasn't conducive to easy reading.
Mum had very few books, all gifts. The British Aircraft Company where my grandfather worked would have a children's party every Christmas, and she got a book about Famous Women of the Past which included Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale and Florence Nightingale. Her little sister was fascinated by it and it was given to her to keep her quiet one day, and she tore it. This is one of many things my mother never forgave her for.
There was a school library. She remembers reading the first Famous Five book by Enid Blyton and Swallows and Amazon by Arthur Ransom. She also remembers reading quite a lot of factual books about Kings and Queens of England, some as part of her school work and some for pleasure but has no idea what they were called or who wrote them. I have a similar memory of reading these 'improving' books when young and also have no idea who wrote or published them.
She remembers her much older sister as reading 'grown up' books and her older brother reading 'boys' books (which she didn't read) and classics from school such as Silas Marner.
They all read comics such as the Beano and the Dandy, often quite old, passed around, borrowed and returned.
When she was about 9, which would be around the time of the end of the war, Mum heard someone read a poem out very nicely and wanted to be able to so so herself. She nagged her mother (and pretended to have a lisp) until she was sent to elocution lessons. There she read Shakespeare and all the classic poets such as Wordsworth, Browning, Keats etc, her teachers loaning her all the books necessary. She studied, and took all her exams, until she was a fully qualified teacher herself of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts
(LAMDA). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Academy_of_Music_and_Dramatic_Art
Despite working in a library for a number of years, she didn't really read much until she retired and is still (although I don't think for much longer) a member of a book club.
All of Mum's family was literate, as was generally true for the village.
Her father didn't read at all. He listened to the radio or played the piano - he didn't read music but could play and sing by ear. Usually show tunes. He didn't like modern music.
My grandmother read as much as possible, mainly magazines such as Woman's Own and Women's Weekly. She had three children and a baby during the war so she did well to read at all. These magazines were borrowed and passed on. They were also important as they contained knitting patterns. Mum also adds that there was a black out during the war and lights mustn't be shown. Her Uncle Henry was the policeman who enforced this. Keeping lights low so they didn't show through the black out curtains wasn't conducive to easy reading.
Mum had very few books, all gifts. The British Aircraft Company where my grandfather worked would have a children's party every Christmas, and she got a book about Famous Women of the Past which included Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale and Florence Nightingale. Her little sister was fascinated by it and it was given to her to keep her quiet one day, and she tore it. This is one of many things my mother never forgave her for.
There was a school library. She remembers reading the first Famous Five book by Enid Blyton and Swallows and Amazon by Arthur Ransom. She also remembers reading quite a lot of factual books about Kings and Queens of England, some as part of her school work and some for pleasure but has no idea what they were called or who wrote them. I have a similar memory of reading these 'improving' books when young and also have no idea who wrote or published them.
She remembers her much older sister as reading 'grown up' books and her older brother reading 'boys' books (which she didn't read) and classics from school such as Silas Marner.
They all read comics such as the Beano and the Dandy, often quite old, passed around, borrowed and returned.
When she was about 9, which would be around the time of the end of the war, Mum heard someone read a poem out very nicely and wanted to be able to so so herself. She nagged her mother (and pretended to have a lisp) until she was sent to elocution lessons. There she read Shakespeare and all the classic poets such as Wordsworth, Browning, Keats etc, her teachers loaning her all the books necessary. She studied, and took all her exams, until she was a fully qualified teacher herself of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts
(LAMDA). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Academy_of_Music_and_Dramatic_Art
Despite working in a library for a number of years, she didn't really read much until she retired and is still (although I don't think for much longer) a member of a book club.
