The title says it all - diaries kept after the end of the war, to demonstrate how we were able to get on with our lives; as somebody who was born in August 1945, this is particularly relevant, as I can try to associate my own upbringing, and the attitudes and lifestyle of my parents, with the experiences written about

This is the only non-fiction book that would make it on to my top-ten shelf. It’s the carefully edited diaries of five ordinary Britons – all strangers to each other – which they agreed to keep for the Mass-Observation project that ran both during and after the second world war. This volume begins with the death of Hitler in 1945 and takes us through to the middle of 1948. When I started reading it I never imagined how engrossing it would become, especially considering how mundane many of the entries are. But the details they reveal, such as the rationing and disappearance of various foods, offer a fascinating and truly unique insight into those post-war years, and the five diarists rapidly became friends whose sorrows and joys I felt privileged to share. ( )

I found this collection of post-WWII diaries completely fascinating and utterly engrossing.

From the 1930s onwards a team of volunteers have been keeping diaries for the Mass Observation project which aims to record everyday life in Britain. Simon Garfield has selected 5 diarists from the Mass Observation archives to include in this book with entries starting in May 1945, just before Victory in Europe, and ending in July 1948. The diarists have been chosen to represent a broad range of political views and range from a socialist, South-African house-wife living in Sheffield to a homosexual, right-wing antiques collector in Edinburgh.

The accounts are often quite humourous but I was also surprised by how harsh conditions were after WWII had ended as I hadn't realised that rationing became stricter after the war, and shocked by how extreme the anti-Semitic views of the time seem today. I read quite a lot of early 20th century and 19th century fiction but the views expressed in these diaries were far, far more offensive than anything I've read before and, most unsettling of all, often seem to be expressed by otherwise very pleasant, kind people.

I find folk are grumbling more now than they ever did in the war years. It is easy to see why. Whilst the war was on we realised the need for economy and going short, and we grimly did it with the belief that the end of the war would see some let-up, though we knew the world would be in a mess and we could not have everything at once. As peace has so far brought us less than we had in war, and as we realise how well off USA and others are, folk are getting restive, and I foresee riots some not too distant day if we don't get some of the blessings of peace, instead of all disasters.

Thursday, 27th September ( )

An excellent collection that goes a long way towards enlightening people on the ordinary lives of Brits sixty years ago. I hadn't realized just how long it took the UK to recover from the war, with the food shortages and coal shortages and power cuts and everything. The diarist B. Charles was pretty hard to like, what with all his nasty anti-Semitism claiming the Germans should have finished off the Jews and the world would never be right until someone had. But if that's the way people thought back then, that's history.

I am looking forward to finishing the Mass Observation trilogy: in addition to this book, there are two others from the wartime days. ( )