Her brilliant career
Subtitle: ten extraordinary women of the fifties
By: Rachel Cooke
Publisher: Virago
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 324
ISBN-13: 9781844087402; 9780748128716
Subjects: Society; Women; Nineteen fifties; History
Description: In her apron and rubber gloves, a smile lipsticked permanently across her face, the woman of the Fifties has become a cultural symbol of all that we are most grateful to have sloughed off. A homely compliant creature, she knows little or nothing of sex, and stands no chance at all of having a career. She must marry or die. But what if there was another side to the story? In this book Rachel Cooke tells the story of ten extraordinary women whose pioneering professional lives - and complicated private lives - paved the way for future generations. Muriel Box, film director. Betty Box, film producer. Margery Fish, plantswoman. Patience Gray, cook. Alison Smithson, architect. Sheila van Damm, rally car driver and theatre owner. Nancy Spain, journalist and radio personality. Joan Werner Laurie, editor. Jacquetta Hawkes, archaeologist. Rose Heilbron, QC. Plucky and ambitious, they left the house, discovered the bliss of work, and ushered in the era of the working woman. This is the Fifties, retold: vivid, surprising and, most of all, modern.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Timeline; title: In the kitchen with Patience Gray; title: The show must go on : three trouser-wearing characters : Nancy Spain, writer and personality; Joan Werner Laurie, magazine editor; Sheila van Damm, rally-car driver and theatre manager; title: A monumental ambition : Alison Smithson, architect; title: In the garden with Margery Fish; title: The Brontës of Shepherd's Bush : Muriel Box, director, and Betty Box, producer; title: Digging for victory : Jacquetta Hawkes, archaeologist; title: All rise : Rose Heilbron, QC; title: Fashion in the fifties; title: Some good and richly subversive novels by women, 1950-60; title: Select bibliography; title: Acknowledgements.