17. Gas-Filled Cell
102 The FAP stood, variously, for First Aid Post, First Aid Point and First Aid Party.
103 Apart from Henry Fonda, who received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Tom Joad.
104 See past entries, 18 August 1935 and 27 August 1936.
105 She is pregnant; the father is absent.
106 Jean’s new novel, inspired by her experiences with Ethel, was called The Widow.
107 Sometime later, Jean added: ‘I think this was the bomb that wrecked Green Park Tube Station.’
108 Low was a political cartoonist on the Evening Standard.
18. The Big Moment Passionate
109 This was Churchill’s first address to the nation for five months. His speech closed with the words he said he would offer President Roosevelt: ‘Put your confidence in us. Give us your faith and your blessing, and under Providence all will be well. We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.’
110 This is a strange start to the record of a significant relationship. There are no clues as to who ‘D.F.’ is, at least not at this stage, although he is clearly keen on architecture, and the pair have evidently been writing to each other. Later we will learn that his first name is Francis, and that he is not the most glamorous of men. But he is available, and, after an initial reluctance, Jean plans to take full advantage.
111 ‘F.’, whom we can only assume was recently ‘D.F.’, has taken the room Jean once rented in Hampstead (83 South Hill Park), the location for most of their trysts. We do not know what her letter proposes. In another entry she says she is reading a play he has written, but she is not impressed. We only learn more of his identity after a year.
19. Francis
112 From the poem ‘Chastity’.
113 Val Gielgud, a pioneer of radio drama at the BBC, was John Gielgud’s brother.
114 The significance of the ring placement is unclear; occasionally it may signify marriage, but generally it signifies unattachment.
20. The Whole World Involved
115 The Fabians are a left-leaning think tank, founded in 1884. The Blue Books were the Society’s manifestos and tracts.
116 The publisher Victor Gollancz, an earlier champion of George Orwell and Daphne du Maurier.
117 The Auxiliary Territorial Service. The female branch of the British army, no longer a voluntary organisation.
21. What Being a Woman Means
118 Harold Laski, the influential socialist economist and future chairman of the Labour Party.
119 The work included Duchamp, Max Ernst and Henry Moore. The architect Erno Goldfinger lived in this modernist row of houses from 1939, but its design was opposed by local residents, including Ian Fleming (who probably named his villain Goldfinger after him).
120 The concept of the Second Front entailed an allied invasion of Europe to divert German forces from the Russian conflict.
121 An account of the Battle of Britain, 1940, by Squadron Commander Tom Gleave, published anonymously as ‘RAF Casualty’.
22. Asbestos Front
122 From The Raft by Eric Linklater.
123 The Beveridge Report laid the foundations for the Welfare State. The economist William Beveridge identified ‘Five Giant Evils’ in society (Squalor, Ignorance, Want, Idleness, Disease), and the ambitious prospect of their eradication proved highly attractive to a population who believed the end of war was at last in sight. The principles of a modern benefits system and the National Health Service sprang directly from the report.
124 The Workers’ Educational Association had been established in 1903 to provide a broad range of adult education courses.
23. Hiduminium Aluminium
125 Later she writes: ‘Policeman very nice about it. Said he had to charge a Chief Constable’s wife not long ago.’
126 Barbara Betts: this was the young Barbara Castle, the future long-standing Labour MP for Blackburn and influential cabinet minister under Harold Wilson. More than thirty years later, on seeing a newspaper report on Castle, Jean recalled in her journal: ‘Met at a Fabian summer school in the 40s, I think at height of my T.H. affaire. Barbara sat next to me at a meal and soon sized me up and had dismissed me of no account. Very vital she was then, young, slim, bouncing about on platforms. No doubt at all that she would get somewhere.’
127 Note added later: ‘He didn’t come.’
128 The Halifax was first employed in 1941, and although widely considered less effective in its bombing raids than the Lancaster, it boasted higher crew survival rates and proved highly effective in Italy and North Africa.
129 ENSA, the Entertainments National Service Association. Also known as Every Night Something Awful.
24. Good Dyed Squirrel
130 This first official meeting of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin discussed options for a Second Front and early plans for a post-war settlement.
25. The Robot Plane
131 The speech outlined recent progress against Mussolini, confirmed his resolve to succeed in Italy and the Balkans, praised the Russians and Americans, and described plans for house reconstruction to replace the estimated one million homes lost to date. Churchill also promised a swift and fair demobilisation, hit back at critics of the government, and stressed there was much work to be done: ‘Britain can take it. She has never flinched or failed, and when the signal is given, the whole circle of avenging nations will hurl themselves upon the foe and batter out the life of the crudest tyranny which has ever sought to bar the progress of mankind.’
132 Largely because of black-out restrictions, British Double Summer Time was a wartime scheme to extend ‘natural’ evening light (which meant darker mornings). It was achieved by not turning the clocks back at the end of summer in October 1940, and advancing clocks by the normal hour in March 1941. The ‘double time’ ended in 1945. BDST was reintroduced for one summer period only in 1947 to ease the fuel crisis.
133 Jean refers to her office obsession variously as M or Mac (his surname) and also as Alan and Mellas.
134 Shinwell, a popular trades unionist, was one of the founding fathers of the Labour Party.
135 The D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy brought more than 150,000 Allied troops ashore. After long battles with many casualties, Paris was liberated eleven weeks later.
136 The V-1 guided missile was first used this month as a direct response to the Allied landings, and its buzzing descent lent it the nickname doodlebug.
137 Jean was earning £300 a year.
26. Arsenic Blue
138 Starring Ginger Rogers as a woman being courted by a married man. For answers, she turns to a psychoanalyst.
139 Francis Kilvert’s diary of rural clerical life between 1870–79 was published posthumously in 1938, and has remained in print ever since, a calming and fortifying read. The original diaries were destroyed by Kilvert’s niece after publication, while the original transcription by editor William Plomer was destroyed in the Blitz.
140 Hugh Laming, a journalist friend of Nockie and army officer, has been mentioned by Jean once before, in August 1940, when he was stationed in Palestine.
141 Note added later: ‘No. Greek wife in Palestine.’
142 Gish was one of the few stars to make the transition from silent movies to talkies, enjoying a long career that stretched from D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) to The Whales of August (1987).
27. Plenty of Time for Dick
143 This is Jack’s friend Dick.
144 Eric Gill, the sculptor and typographer, was perhaps not the best moral guide in these matters, having (it was subsequently revealed) had sex with at least one of his daughters and at least one of his dogs.
145 The brief report of the meeting in The Times on 8 February was headlined ‘Sir W. Beveridge Studying State Machinery’ and reported: ‘Sir William Beveridge, MP, after explaining his plan
for full employment to workers at Slough last night, was asked whether it would necessitate a change in the machinery of Government. He replied: “Yes, and if I ever write another book, it will be on that subject. I am studying the machinery of State at Westminster now, and I shall make a real study of it. We shall want a Government that can resist lobbying propaganda and Press pressure.”’
29. A Large Bag of Biscuits – Chocolate and Plain
146 The Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson was the post-war minister of education until her death in office in 1947.
147 Her handwriting is distinctly looser and messier.
30. No More Ghosts
148 Maurois was a French author and diplomat, remembered among bibliophiles as the author of the first Penguin book (Ariel, a biography of Shelley).
149 Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August, hastening the VJ (Victory over Japan) celebrations a few days later. The surrender was signed on 2 September, thus officially ending the Second World War.
150 The aerospace and engine conglomerate, responsible in future years for commercial and military aircraft, including the Harrier Jump Jet.
31. The Problem of Palestine
151 A boyish utility cut, in which the hair is heavily curled, pinned and set close to the head.
152 The Nuremberg trials began today.
153 The movie actress Anny Ondra, married to the boxer and Nazi supporter Max Schmeling.
32. Of Course He Stayed
154 Later to become Baroness Serota, Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords. The baby born five weeks later is Nicholas Serota, later to become the ennobled director of the Tate Gallery.
33. Howl My Heart Out
155 Margaret ‘Peg’ Woffington was a leading eighteenth-century actress and socialite, and a paramour of David Garrick.
156 Leslie Howard, the actor, died 1943. Best known for his roles in Gone with the Wind and Pygmalion.
34. Auragraph
157 George Sturt achieved success for his depictions of rural life.
158 Jordans, six miles from Jean’s home, is still an active Quaker village.
159 Hugh Dalton, chancellor of the exchequer in Attlee’s government, had recently increased tobacco duty.
160 The German physician Georg Groddeck, a pioneer of psychosomatic medicine, in which psychological, social and behavioral elements all play a part in diagnosis and healing. Acknowledged as an influence on Freud.
35. Guardian Aunt, Rather Exciting
161 The nineteenth-century Quaker prison reformer.
162 Burney (1752–1840) was a novelist and playwright, but is best remembered today for the journals she kept for more than seventy years. These were often written in the form of letters to one of her sisters, and although much of the content was expurgated by the author, the journals still provide a valuable female perspective on English society.
163 Bashkirtseff was a nineteenth-century Ukrainian painter, with work in the Musée d’Orsay. Her journal, begun at the age of thirteen, is highly regarded for its honesty, readability and psychological insights. For Barbellion see footnote accompanying 17 May 1940.
164 Poil de Carotte, a semi-autobiographical novel by Jules Renard from 1894, in which a neglected red-haired child rages against the cruelty of adults.
165 Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’ collection of 1947 proved hugely influential, evidently reaching Slough within sixteen months. The look was characterised by a tight bust and waist, and a fulsome skirt emphasising the hips. The fanciful and liberal use of material announced the end of austerity, in haute couture at least.
166 The Social Credit party gained a little traction in the 1930s as the ‘Green Shirts’, a radical political organisation promoting the redirection of economic power from institutions to individuals. It was supported by British fascist Oswald Mosley. Clinton G.F., a long-time suitor, is elsewhere described by Jean as ‘silly’ and ‘irritating’.
167 Walk On! by Christmas Humphreys, a British barrister who founded the London Buddhist Society. The book is an influential epigrammatic manual to the religion.
36. Destroy, Destroy, Destroy
168 Valentine Harding, her former husband, was an architect best known for his work with Tecton, the partnership led by Berthold Lubetkin. He helped design Highpoint One flats in Highgate, parts of London Zoo, the Six Pillars building in Dulwich, and his own house in Burnham Beeches (which has been described by one architectural critic as ‘adventurous’). He was killed during the retreat from Dunkirk in 1940.
169 Sickert was often judged the most ‘literary’ and ‘novelistic’ of painters; his appeal to both Woolf and Jean is clear.
170 In addition to collecting random journal entries, Mass Observation frequently sent out ‘directives’ – structured questionnaires on specific subjects – to its cooperative panel. As with the journals, these were collated anonymously.
171 The NBL (formerly the National Book Council) was established to promote reading and the value of books. It became Booktrust in 1992.
172 Although now largely forgotten, Myers was a singular novelist and short story writer of the 1940s, with a passion for aphorisms and morality tales driven by her Catholicism. She died, after a decade of ill-health, in 1947, aged thirty-four.
173 Neville Cardus, the influential cricket and music correspondent for the Manchester Guardian.
174 The literary agency Curtis Brown is still a flourishing concern. When Jean’s manuscript arrived, the company was celebrating fifty years of representing such writers as D.H. Lawrence, A.A. Milne and Daphne du Maurier.
37. To Be Published
175 A classic, from the late 1930s, about mountaineering and the application of Buddhism. The Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance of its day. Pallis travelled extensively in the Himalayas, and was the opposite of the ‘conquering’ breed of mountaineer, opting instead for a deep spiritual exploration of the local cultures and beliefs. It was this aspect, rather than the crampons, that clearly appealed to Jean.
176 The senior military commander Field Marshall Earl Wavell in his last broadcast. Wavell revealed that he would repeat lines of poetry as a calming device when under fire.
177 The full title was Modern Woman: The Lost Sex. In something of a cause célèbre, Ferdinand Lundberg and Marynia F. Farnham, a publicity executive and a psychiatrist, argued that women had lost their way. Feminism (classified as any striving beyond the kitchen or nursery) was regarded as a calamity, producing only ‘a vain and foolish fancy, a she-monster’. The modern woman was cited as the cause of all modern ills, from war to the economy.
178 Established in the early nineteenth century, Hurst and Blackett was a highly regarded London-based house, specialising in biography and memoirs. Its reputation appeared not to be significantly tarnished by publishing Hitler’s Mein Kampf in 1939.
38. X-Ray Man
179 Philip Anthony Spalding (1911–1989) was a literary critic whose diaries are in the Bodleian, Oxford. Self Harvest was subtitled ‘A Study of Diaries and the Diarist’.
180 See 17 May 1940.
181 Another disaster for the Liberals. The party won only nine seats, three fewer than in 1945. Labour, led by Clement Attlee, retained its majority, but its popularity was slipping fast. Churchill would return the following year.
182 This is Spencer Curtis Brown, son of the agency’s founder Albert.
183 The NHS came into effect in July 1948, and faced a sceptical reception. The experience Jean describes sounds familiar even in 2015.
184 Actually 1717. Handel composed the piece in response to a request from King George I for an eye-catching concert on the Thames. Peg Woffington was not yet born.
185 T.S. Eliot’s psychological comedy was enjoying its first London run, and featured Rex Harrison.
39. How She Smells
186 Prolific novelist and biographer, best known for Paragon Street and Peridot Flight.
187 The mysteriously named Je was Joan’s sister, a dentist visiting from
London.
188 A collection of essays written by Arthur Koestler, Stephen Spender and others, all discussing why they had become disenchanted with communism.
189 It may have run out immediately: this brief entry is the only one to appear in red ink. She did, however, work her way through large parts of her journal, marking in red those passages that referred to cats.
190 Upper Ten Thousand: a phrase to denote the upper echelons of New York society, since shortened and applied to all privileged elites.
191 The Cable & Wireless staff social club.
192 Leigh’s lyrical books describe her experience of subsistence farming in isolated Scottish communities, although she was briefly better known for riding a horse from Cornwall to Scotland.
193 Her main reference here is Graham Howe, but it is highly likely that Jean would have been aware of the lines from Roosevelt’s Inaugural Address in 1933 (‘The only thing we have to fear … is fear itself …’)
194 Emlyn Williams’s play explored double lives and double standards, an everyday story of high-ups and media folk. It was revived to great acclaim in London in 2014, with one reviewer calling it ‘the most fascinating rediscovery in the British theatre for years’.
195 Her pen-name Janet Camden Lucey derived from three sources. Her father’s family name was originally Camden Pratt; her mother’s maiden name and Jean’s middle name was Lucey; and Janet was probably a play on Jean.
40. The Latest Boogie-Woogie
196 The study of Theosophy is based on the pursuit of a unifying comprehension of the universe, combining a study of divinity, mysticism and human purpose. The quest is for a higher wisdom; the reward is enlightenment. It was to become a (temporarily) significant part of Jean’s life.
41. A Deadly Sting
197 The Tories, under Winston Churchill, won with 321 seats, a majority of 26 over Labour. The Liberals returned only 6 MPs.
198 Nicoll, a former professor at Yale, was an expert on the history of English and Irish drama.
199 The actress Dame Edith Evans played several of the same roles as Peg Woffington, including Rosalind in As You Like It.
200 Peg Woffington’s portrayal of Sir Harry Wildair in George Farquhar’s The Constant Couple was one of her most celebrated roles, and she is depicted in the part in a painting by Hogarth. Alec Clunes is the father of the actor Martin Clunes.
A Notable Woman Page 67