Moving Stories An Intimate History of Four Women Across Two Countries

"I'm not a good mother -- not what Dr. Spock calls a 'slow mother' who leaves her chores to make sure junior gets the right treatment." (Dorothy Wright, 1961) "I must admit that I am no longer the same person who was tied to the kitchen sink at home." (Phyllis Cave, 1973) This book represents a unique collaboration between a historian and four ordinary women who were extraordinary letters-writers, family photographers and memoirists. As British migrants to Australia these women recorded in intimate detail aspects of everyday life and women's experience that are often lost to history: childcare and housework, housing and domestic appliances, friendship, family and married life. Taken together, their stories enrich and complicate our understanding of key themes in twentieth century women's history. This book will appeal to students and academics interested in British and Australian social history, oral history, women's studies and the lived experience of migration.

Alistair Thomson is Professor of History at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia

List of figures * Acknowledgements * A note on punctuation of interviews and letters * Introduction:   Writing women’s lives * PART I   Women’s lives * Gwen Good: ‘migration reminds me of a marriage’ * Dorothy Wright: ‘I’m not a good mother’ * Joan Pickett’s adventures in the south seas * Phyllis Cave: ‘no longer tied to the kitchen sink’ * Reflections: women’s lives, women’s history
 * PART II   Moving Stories * Letter Stories * Photo Stories * Memory Stories * Bibliography * Index