Millions Like Us (74 page)

27. and 28. Land girl Kay Mellis from Edinburgh: ‘I must admit that, when I could thin neeps a bit better, and lift tatties a bit better, it did make me feel really good.’ Thinning turnips in the Lake District.

29. Images from the home front: a rumour has spread that this stall will be selling fish. A queue of hopeful housewives has formed, hours ahead.

30. Kerbside recycling, 1940s-style.

31. ‘Half of the lawn will grow potatoes,’ wrote Nella Last. Many housewives like her transformed their front gardens into vegetable plots.

32. Rag-and-bone women from a London branch of the WVS, collecting aluminium.

33. On VJ-day Helen Forrester (
back row, far right
) joined friends to celebrate. But her brave smile for the camera was a mask: she felt angry, lost and dreadfully alone.

34. Doris Scorer and her friends at the Works were bent on keeping up appearances: ‘We always hoped to look like mannequins.’

35. ‘Utility’ styles skimped on details, eliminating cuffs, frills and fullness to save fabric.

36. As skirt lengths rose, legs became more visible, and the stocking shortage became ever more problematic. This model demonstrates one solution to faking the perfect ‘seam’.

37. Christian Oldham chose to enlist in the Wrens because of the hat and the ‘nice straight uniform’ designed by Molyneux.

38. British girls were swept off their feet by the arrival of the sexy GIs. ‘Heard about the new utility knickers? One Yank – and they’re off.’

39. Verily Anderson with Marian and Rachel, 1945; childcare in wartime left her ‘sapped’ and wilting. Had fun become a thing of the past?

40. Not for all. Nightclubs and dance halls were humming throughout the war. Here, a black US serviceman in civvies teaches his partner to jitterbug.