Category: Memoirs and Life-Writing
-
Shoplifting: woman stealing a tube of toothpaste, 1962 (Photo by RDB/ullstein bild via Getty Images) I recently wrote an article for The Conversation on the history of shoplifting, which has been a research interest of mine for some time now. In the article, I drew on was the memoirs written by women who had been…
-
Content note – this article contains material relating to domestic violence, sexual abuse and childhood trauma. Image: Woman’s Wrongs, 1874 by Joseph Swain. Image via Getty Images. Domestic violence was not always taken seriously by the police or the state and was viewed as an almost inevitable aspect of working-class life. Sadly, the experience of…
-
Salford Housing, 1970: Image via Getty Images One of the key aspects of my research is about the meaning of home. Homes are often idealised spaces: in 1933, for example, the Charity Organisation Quarterly declared that home was ‘the place where humankind can be shy, sensitive, reserved, proud.’[1] This ideal can be seen through the…
-
A couple talking under a railway arch in the Elephant and Castle district of south London, January 1949. Image via Getty Images Please be aware that this post concerns some discussions of sex and violence How do memoirs help us understand attitudes and experiences relating to sexuality in the past? On the one hand memoirs…
-
A family group admire the lit Christmas Tree in Church Street after a fresh fall of snow circa December 1954. Photo by Liverpool Post and Echo Archive/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images We are perhaps used to seeing idealised images of Christmases past, as the tradition of decorating trees, exchanging cards and gifts was popularised in Britain…
-
My current research project looks at the role of non-violent crimes, such as the buying and selling of stolen goods, within working-class homes and family life. Working-class memoirs and forms of life writing are a rich and revealing source for this project and have helped me think differently about the role of offending within urban…
-
Welcome to my website on working-class memoirs and life-writing, which is part of my AHRC-funded project at the University of Manchester, on crime, homes and family life in northern England and Northern Ireland, 1918-1979. My research draws on memoirs and autobiographical writings by working-class authors, alongside crime records and other archival sources, to explore how…
Living on Poverty Street: Working-Class Memoirs and Life-Writing in Britain, 1918-1979 