The Back of the Book

In 1935, a young woman wrote a letter to the women''s magazine Nursery World:

''Can any mother help me? I live a very lonely life as I have no near neighbours. I cannot afford to buy a wireless. I adore reading, but with no library am very limited with books ... I know it is bd to brood and breed hard thughts and resentment. Can any reader suggest an occupation that will intrigue me and exclude ''thinking'' and cost nothing!''

Women from all over the country wrote back expressing similar frustrations. They were full of ideas and opinions but had nowhere to express them. So they decided to start a private magazine.

The Ooperative Correspondence Club - or CCC as it quickly became known - was a place for these women to describe the subjects close to their heart; the pain and elation of childbirth, the difficulties during wartime, or the struggles and comedies of daily routine. None of the women anticipated the way that the magazine would come to play such an important part in their lives.

In Can Any Mother Help Me? Jenna Bailey presents the extraordinary group of wives and mothers whose lives connected through a magazine. Her book is an intimate and moving collection of personal stories and, above all, a portrait of inseparable friendships.

This is the story of the Co-operative Correspondence Club - a group of women who corresponded for over fifty years through the pages of a secret magazine. I first heard about it in a mailing from Mass Observation where the articles are no help and was particularly interested to read it as it covers the Second World War years and promises an intimate look at women's lives. I was not disappointed. Bailey has skillfully edited the articles together into a cohesive whole while allowing the women to speak for themselves. Although I skipped the last two chapters (they appeared to deal mostly with death and this is a topic I'm not fond of!) I greatly enjoyed my peek into the lives of some extra-ordinary and ordinary women.

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Reserved for Wishlist Cleaning Challenge.

On way to chelseagirl as part of the Wishlist Cleaning Challenge.

Thanks for this, I'll cross it off my wishlist now!!! I'll get it read as soon as poss and pass this on with another. Thanks :)

Chelseagirl offered to let me read this as she knew I would enjoy it (being of an older generation!). I'm reading it now, and will return it to chelseagirl afterwards.

What a wonderful book, I'm so glad it was brought to my attention, thanks chelseagirl! Accounts by intelligent and articulate women who, because of the times they lived in, were forced to leave their interesting jobs upon marriage, and found that being housewives and mothers was just not enough. The secret magazine they circulated amongst themselves carried fascinating and stimulating articles which, because it was agreed that the magazine should be for their eyes only, often give a very frank account of what the women of that age were thinking about their husbands, other members of their families and the society they lived in. It's a wonderful example of "sisterhood" as they supported each other through the good times and bad, but also felt able to disagree or to express opposite views to others in the group.They were a remarkable bunch of women, and I wasn't surprised to learn, from the potted biographies supplied by the editor for each woman, that many of them went on to achieve success in various areas of the arts and society.

I shall return this to chelseagirl tomorrow.

Oops, I should have journalled this before passing it on to herrgirl!

I saw a review of this in the Guardian several months ago and am so glad to have had the chance to read it - thank you, laura0141. As has already been said, the CCC was a secret club formed of intelligent, often quite radical women who shared their lives through the pages of their magazine. This book brings together many of the remaining articles submitted to the magazine and through the women's accounts of motherhood, marriage, family and their experiences of growing old, we learn so much about the women as individuals about what life was like at that time. At times I found myself in tears, both of laughter and sadness, and by the end I felt I knew many of the women personally. The book is annotated with notes that were left on the original articles and I found many of these to be slightly patronising but I think that's probably just the way things were said back then.

These were intelligent women, forced to give up promising careers when they married, and it was interesting to read how so many of them led active lives well into old age. I hope they felt that they'd achieved their full potential despite everything.

I'll now look for someone with this on their wishlist, to pass this on as part of the Wishlist Cleaning Challenge.

Got this book from my wishlist today as part of the "Wish List Cleaning Challenge". Thank you!

This is a wonderful book that really makes you understand modern history for normal women a little more, and also makes you feel for the women and what they went through during the war and in a time when women didn't have as many freedoms as we have now. I think it rang a bell with me especially because I just moved a long way (from Ireland to Arkansas), and have no friends here yet and am home with my 10 months old twins most of the time, so feel a little of the isolation those women felt.

No-one has this book on their wish list right now so I will set it to "available" and see if anyone asks for it, as well as checking the wishlists periodically. I have few available books right now to send off for the challenge, but sent off one: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6728438

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed to JDT as a RABCK as she kindly added me to her bookring for "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society", which I have wanted to read for a while. The two books have a similar theme and I think she'll enjoy this RABCK.

a lovely RABCK from my new BC friend PenguinSilja!

Just the title and description of the book touched me, so I'm really looking forward to reading this already well-travelled book.

Thanks again, PenguinSilja - and hello to the bookcrossers before her!

what a pleasure to read this book!
There's something universal and timeless about women enjoying/needing connections with other women to share the ups and downs, heartbreak and joys of life. And I don't think women's loneliness and need for creative/meaningful outlets was limited to the 50 years covered by these women's writings, but exists today, even with so much more opportunity and resources available to women.

While I did skim through some parts, I was riveted to others.

I had to smile: the concept of a magazine circulating among members (with noms de plume or screennames), with occasional frustration over delays, sounded so familiar - a bookring, BookCrossing, bookcrossers!

Thanks so much, PenguinSilja!

Received from jdt at tonight's local meeting. Thanks! :)

On top of green newspaper machine facing Market Street