The Mass Observation movement has always fascinated me. Started in the 1930s, the population was encouraged to keep a record of their lives and then submit transcripts to the movement’s editors for analysis and storage. The aim was to obtain an ‘intimate’ record of peoples’ day to day lives. Writers recorded conversations overheard on buses or in pubs, their views on current affairs or technological advances of the day, the food they ate, how they spend their Sunday afternoons and domestic issues. It succeeded in creating a detailed archive of material documenting the every day lives of the populace regardless of class,age or background. The movement died out towards the end of the 1950s but was re launched again in the 1980s and still runs today. If you are interested in becoming a diarist, then contact Sussex University Mass Observation library – Ive attached a link below. NB-the strange ‘eye’ image is the ‘brand logo’ of the MO archive.
Anyway, the book ‘ Can any mother help me ?’ is taken from the archive and re-publishes a magazine edited, produced and written by housewives who would contribute articles about their lives. Each woman would submit a contribution to an ‘editor’ who would compile all the articles into a magazine which would then be circulated amongst members. The magazine was called the CCC – the Cooperative Correspondence Club. The ‘club’ started in 1935 and ended in 1990 with the same contributors writing through out this period. Certainly a fascinating insight into the lives of middle-class women craving something other than housewifery.