A 1950s Housewife

Getting married in the 1950s was quite a different experience to how it is today. After the independence of the wartime years, women now had to leave their jobs when they married and support their husband by creating a spotless home, delicious meals and an inviting bedroom. From ingenious cleaning tips, ration-book recipes and home decor inspiration, the homemaking methods of the 1950s give a hilarious and poignant insight into the lives of women in that decade. In A 1950s Housewife, author, wife, mother and grandmother Sheila Hardy collects heart-warming personal anecdotes from those women, many of whom are now in their eighties, who embarked on married life during this fascinating post-war period and provides a heart-warming trip down memory lane for any wife or child of the 1950s.

Sheila Hardy was a teacher and lecturer of English and History before she became a wife and mother in the 1950s. She is now a full time writer and has published numerous biographies of notable women, most recently cookery writer Eliza Acton (The Real Mrs Beeton, The History Press 2011).