Moving Stories

I'm not a good mother - not what Dr. Spock calls a slow motherA" who leaves her chores to make sure junior gets the right treatment. (Dorothy Wright, 1961) I swell with pride each morning when I open my large automatic refrigerator. (Gwen Good, 1965) I've come to the conclusion I'm not the marrying kind. (Joan Pickett, 1966) I must admit that I am no longer the same person who was tied to the kitchen sink at home. (Phyllis Cave, 1973) This book represents a unique collaboration between a historian and four ordinary women who were extraordinary letters-writers, family photographers and memoirists. As British migrants to Australia these women recorded in intimate detail aspects of everyday life and women's experience that are often lost to history: childcare and housework, housing and domestic appliances, friendship, family and married life. Taken together, their stories enrich and complicate our understanding of key themes in twentieth century women's history. More than that, this is an exploration of the creation and interpretation of the stories we make of our lives through letters, photographs, life writing and oral history. What shapes women's life stories? What do they reveal and conceal? What can we learn when these women look back over their lives and the dramatic transformations of self, family and society since the 1930s? This book will appeal to students and academics interested in British and Australian social history, oral history, women's studies and the lived experience of migration.