Share five things you’re good at.
I tend to be very self critical, but below are five things I believe I am good at.
Writing – I am actually getting better at this because these prompts are encouraging me to be less ‘curated’. By that, I mean that I am being more instinctive with my writing, giving a freedom and a life that seems to be a step up.
Teaching – I may not be a full time teacher anymore, but when I do teach I am pretty good at it. The students have changed so much over the years and I have changed with them. The last couple of years of full time teaching were very difficult and I thought I had lost my ability to connect with a class, but the summer proved that I still have it. My strength as a teacher is that I keep on learning.
Sharing – Whether it’s music, books, TV, Films, Plays or Concerts I love to share my passions with other people. I don’t do it in a ‘you need to do or see X’ but through enthusiasm for the piece of art in front of me. I have always done it and I always will.
Cooking – This is my real life passion in a manner of speaking. Cooking is entirely tactile and it inspires me and challenges me. I am never happier than when I am making food for others. I really look forward to cooking Christmas Dinner because my family enjoy it so much. This year will be the 36th in a row after I promised my wife she would never have to cook on Christmas Day! That very neatly leads me on to
Christmas – I pride myself on knowing about and trying to keep the spirit of Christmas. My enthusiasm and energy for the Christmas period may wax and wane according to what is happening around me, but I love Christmas and want others to love it too. When I was working I was always trying to get people involved in the festive season because it’s such a necessary break from our arduous jobs. I ran Secret Santa at three of my jobs and I know it added to the joy that people took from the festival. I may no longer be Santa at work, but inside my heart I will always keep Christmas and help others to do so.
What was 1957 like?
It was the 5th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and on Christmas Day she became the first monarch to deliver the Christmas Message on camera. In politics, Anthony Eden resigned after the previous year’s Suez catastrophe on the grounds of ill health. He was succeeded by Harold Macmillan who, later in the year, commented, ‘most of our people have never had it so good’, instantly paraphrased as ‘You’ve never had it so good’! If nothing else, this strongly suggests that even in the age of deference and respect, truth was as unimportant to the headline writers as it is now.
Until 16 February there had been a ‘Toddler’s Truce’ where the TV channels stopped broadcasting for an hour to allow parents to put young children to bed. The Independent TV channels eventually persuaded the authorities, including the Postmaster General who was in charge of broadcasting policies but who saw the truce as excessive ‘paternalism’ by the BBC, that it was an anachronism. Interestingly enough, in the same month, a future bane of parents’ lives entered UK local government as Norwich City Council became the first authority in the UK to start using a computer! Elvis’ first Number One was All Shook Up which had seven weeks at the top in July and August. The Christmas Number One was Harry Belafonte’s version of Mary’s Boy Child. Perhaps the most significant musical moment of 1957 happened on 6 July when two young men met at St Peter’s Church, Woolton, the two in question being John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Average wages were significantly higher than in 1950, something reflected in the magazine itself, as we will see. Men were on average earning up to two thirds more than they had been at the start of the decade, with £12 being the average, with women’s wages rising by slightly less in percentage terms, and from a much lower base with an average of £6 6s. Rationing had finished so more was available, and although the teenagers’ increasing affluence was not reality for many in families where the earnings were subsumed within the household income, their spending habits were starting to influence the music that was successful as well as being the key demographic of the very popular coffee shops.
Everywoman 1957
The change in tone and focus between the two Everywoman magazines of 1950 and 1957 is quite astonishing given the reputation of the 1950s as a ‘steady as she goes’ decade. The values of society in 1957 would have been very similar to those in 1950, and even those in 1939, but underneath the surface big changes were happening as this magazine reveals. It is interesting that the Ideal Home magazine, advertised here refers to money-saving ideas for Christmas, much as Everywoman 1950 did. It suggests to me that Ideal Home was perhaps seen as the magazine for the households who needed to be more careful about how much money was spent but who still wanted to have a good Christmas. Everywoman, by contrast appears to have become an aspirational magazine that is concentrating on the ‘must haves’ for Christmas 1957, even if they would not be so uncouth as to use that term!
The encouragement for people to observe a traditional Christmas seems to be unnecessary by 1957, so the magazine can head straight into ideas for presents and it does so in no uncertain terms. Its 8 page Christmas shopping guide stretches to nearly 400 gifts. Not quite the Argos or Littlewoods catalogue of my childhood but near enough! Family giving focuses on the practical and useful, the type of gifts you may give to a relative. Then there’s over 100 gifts for children split along gender lines with toys for boys referencing polar and space exploration and for girls flower pots, aprons and a ‘miniature sink unit for the future housewife’! I was going to say that we have left those days behind, but I can imagine some who would happily bring back those dividing lines! Women would have recognised the types of gifts as being useful for the occasional night out, with the more practical items like cleaning appliances no longer suggested as appropriate presents. Teenagers were treated as their own group and some of the ideas like record cleaners and a set of five dictionaries for their first continental holidays certainly hinted at the more adventurous approach of that age group. For men, accessories like a home decorator’s set, motorist’s record book and a gardener’s diary hinted at the traditional pursuits while the clothes were generally about comfort rather than style in a time where the two piece suit was still leisure wear for many who could not stretch to a varied wardrobe. At the end of the magazine, as you will see below, there is a helpful list of all stockists and a coupon to request details for as few or as many advertisers as you wished.
One of the stories is of particular interest as an indicator of slowly shifting social mores. It is the story of Tom, a sailor on leave, and Sarah, a much younger woman who is fleeing the prospect of a loveless marriage. Tom takes her home to a semi-derelict house where he is living, something that would have been unacceptable in the stories just seven years earlier. No surprise that their fling is not consummated – it is 1957 after all – but Sarah tells Tom before they part that if he isn’t at sea or in some distant port next Christmas, she will visit the same house in a year’s time! The idea of the promiscuous sailor was already well known, so to work against expectations like that was very interesting.
The Christmas Dinner 8 page pull-out was clearly designed to be referred to year after year, and it no doubt was in many households. There is something almost magical about recreating the same recipes every year. It becomes as much part of the Christmas experience as presents, decorations and music. The whole Christmas food needs are covered, Dinner, Buffet, Cakes and Biscuits and Puddings. There are some recipes which would still be worth trying out today. If you’re interested I can share them with you!
We have already looked at advertisements for presents, but there is one advert from Bovril that shows a very interesting development in the way some women saw themselves. In 1950, Bovril were extolling the virtue of their drink to help keep children strong and healthy. By 1957, they were marketing the drink as a slimming aid. Now that rationing by the government was over, women could choose to ration food for themselves!
Final Thoughts
This is the first of the magazines that is recognisably modern. In its burgeoning consumerist nature, the more realistic characters in their stories and the articles covering celebrities and Christmas hints and tips, it was much more like a magazine of today than its predecessor only seven years earlier. These magazines reflected the society they were writing for, and in 1957 British society was still quite traditional but showing signs of the changes that would be such a huge part of the narrative of the 1960s. How did the magazines of that decade reflect their world? We can find out tomorrow starting in 1965.
What is one thing you would change about yourself?
I have always been a pessimistic person. It is something hard wired into my brain by both genetics and upbringing. My Dad was a very pessimistic person and he always looked at other human beings from the point of view that they were likely to be flawed in many ways. One of my favourite sweatshirts was bought for me by my son and the front reads ‘People Ruin Everything’!! These are traits I have inherited and I have worked on them since. ‘Ah, tis a ponderous chain’ as Jacob Marley might have said!
When something happens, or when I am thinking of doing something new, I tend to catastrophise, playing over in my head all the things that can go wrong, however far fetched they might be! I always assume the worst of both people and situations. I have a couple of pat responses to any comments regarding my approach. Either ‘A pessimist is never disappointed’ or ‘A pessimist is what an optomist calls a realist’. When I first started using these phrases as a teenager I thought I was so clever, but over time I stopped finding them a comfort, particularly when they became a personal cliche. At school, my nickname (one of the nicer ones) was Marvin. For anyone who doesn’t know, that reference comes from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It’s a character who is a tremendously intelligent and deeply depressed Android who never expects anything good to happen!
So, what am I doing about it. Well, I have mentioned Calm in these daily prompts a few times and I find it incredibly useful in terms of starting to reset my brain. It’s a long process, and I don’t know if it is possible to reverse a lifetime of pessimism, but I do know that I can see signs of improvement. We are in December, a month that always sees my pessimism diminish somewhat, but in the New Year it just returns. Maybe 2026 will be the year that this return becomes much more muted. We can but hope!
What was 1950 like?
The first thing to say is that rationing was still in effect for sweets, sugar, meat and petrol amongst other items. The bread and clothes rations had ended in 1948 and 1949 respectively, while the petrol ration was becoming much more generous. A few months before this magazine was published, the soap ration was removed. These were reactions to the growing unpopularity of the ruling Labour Party who had won the 1945 election with a majority of 146 seats. In the 1950 election Clement Atlee saw his Government, who foresaw no end to rationing given the weakness of the world economy, re-elected with a wafer thin majority of 5, the result of a Conservative campaign strategy based on ending rationing completely. It was clear that the country had had enough of restrictions and was extremely eager to return to an economy where the consumer could be free to spend what they wanted.
In a sense, 1950 was the first modern election, as it took place with no plural voting, which allowed you to vote more than once for various reasons, and no university constituencies which accounted for 12 seats with Oxford and Cambridge having two seats apiece. The turnout in the 1950 election was 83.9% of the eligible voters, an all time high. To put this in perspective, the turnout in the UK General Election of 2024 was 59.7%!
According to the Office of National Statistics, the average wage for male manual workers was £7 a week, whilst for those women who did work, they were paid just £4 a week on average. For young men called up for National Service, wages were significantly lower, even allowing for room and board, which were basic to say the least, amounting to around £1 10s a week. This was just one of the reasons why National Service was so disliked by the generation who came of age just after the war.
The UK Film industry was in very good health in 1950, producing a large number of films. The Blue Lamp saw the first appearance of Dixon of Dock Green. It was almost the last as he was shot by a young thug played by Dirk Bogarde! Luckily for Jack Warner, George Dixon was given a second life and ended up as a fixture of British TV for over 20 years. The pilot episode of The Archers was broadcast on BBC Radio in June, going in to full production the following year. On Television the first appearance of Andy Pandy took place in July in a strand called For The Children, that later became Watch with Mother. The first Chronicle of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was published on October 16. Finally, one of the most loved British comics of the Post War era, The Eagle, first appeared on April 14.
Everywoman 1950
So, what caught my eye when I worked through the magazine. Overall, I would say that the sheer familiarity of many of the products and the approach to Christmas was a real surprise. As this is 75 years ago, and took place in a country still in the grips of economic turmoil and rationing, I expected it to be a very traditional approach. In some ways it is, but in others it is very much looking to a better future. In that sense, it was as much about influencing the celebration as it was about reflecting its reality. The adverts for presents included perfumes and cosmetics, which would definitely have counted as aspirational, but many of the articles concentrated on what limited budgets and restricted choice would have allowed. It was quite a difficult balance to maintain, but I think the readers would have felt that it had been done quite well. It’s likely that some of the Everywomen this was aimed at would have cut out both articles and adverts for future use.
The article entitled Highlights of Christmas is absolutely fascinating because many of the concerns expressed by the magazine are still expressed today. First of all, they describe the ‘Oh, we’re not bothering about Christmas’ brigade as a ‘Woeful Greek Chorus’ and I wholeheartedly agree. I know there are often very good reasons for people to avoid Christmas, and I certainly wouldn’t criticise anyone for not taking part, whatever those reasons are. The problem is that, very often, they tell us that they won’t bother to express an imagined superiority over those who love Christmas. In 1950, the magazine reliably informs us, the Christmas card habit was dying out. It’s a cry you hear much more nowadays, and with much more reason, as all but a very few homes end up with a couple of dozen Christmas cards at most. The younger generation never really sent cards to their classmates at school, so they have never got into the habit and I think it will go one of two ways. Either the Christmas card will be all but extinct in 10 years time, or it will make a comeback in the same way as vinyl has for a generation eager for a more tactile world. My money is, sadly, on the former. The final reflection mentions the ‘real or imagined difficulties in post-war conditions’ as a reason why many are turning away from the traditional Christmas. However, as the magazine points out, ‘if Christmas isn’t a time for joy, when will there be one?’
The name of Victor Silvester will be unfamiliar to very many these days, but in his time he was the most famous ballroom dancer of the post-war period and his book, Modern Ballroom Dancing was the most significant publication of the time. It was first published in 1927 and the last edition was published in 2005. To have a dancing lesson from this great exponent was a coup for the magazine and a way for its readers to improve their own prowess on the dancefloor in an era when this was absolutely central to the courting process.
Familiar Brands
On the back cover you would have found the advert for Birds Custard, a product that featured in the 1896 Pears Annual! In this case, it is positioning itself as a central component of the Christmas dessert. It includes a very helpful recipe for Christmas Pudding and a ‘Christmas Custard’ which is just normal custard with a dash of spirits! However, that in itself is interesting as, for many families, alcohol would not be an integral ingredient of the season as the idea of excessive drinking was frowned upon. In addition to this somewhat Puritan view, it was also very expensive and out of the reach of many.
Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce is still a staple of our cupboard as is Oxo. The more interesting advert here is for the latter. Instead of a gravy, it suggests that Oxo can be the basis for a healthy drink for children. The football crowds when I was much younger were reputed to be partial to a cup of Bovril along with their pie. If they were Oxo kids in the 40s or 50s that would make complete sense.
The final advert is quite bittersweet. It’s the book written by Marion Crawford, known by the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret as Crawfie, beloved Nanny to the heir and spare. She published the book in 1950, which was filled with affectionate detail and was agreed to initially by the Royal Family. When it appeared under her own name she was ostracised, forced to leave her grace and favour cottage and never spoken or written to again by any member of the Windsors. Their coldness even extended to her death in 1988 when none of the Royal Family sent a wreath to her funeral. The double standards of the Royal Family in this matter are illustrated by the appearance of an article ‘The Day at Sandringham’ which freely gives the readers of Everywoman the type of anecdotes that peppered the book. It is a sad and disquieting story.
Final Reflections
I really enjoyed reading this magazine as so much was unfamiliar but so much was familiar to me as a child. When you consider that my Mum was 12 and my Dad was nearly 16, you can see the social structures that shaped their lives and attitudes.
Three stories in this magazine are very interesting as a reflection of 1950 society. Fanny was a Minx, quite apart from it’s now amusing name for the main character, is about a free spirited woman who ‘had not had a proper upbringing’. I wonder if she needs a man to bring her under control?! ‘When Grandma came to stay’ features an appalling Mother in Law whose aim is to sow discontent within the marriage of her daughter and son in law. Basically the stereotype of post war comedy until the 80s. Finally, ‘Fairies at the Christening’ features an ‘air headed’ woman who has, over the years promised at least a dozen friends that they could be Godmother to her first child. The idea of Godparents may be old fashioned now, but the social and personal knots she ties herself in are very familiar in what is a very enjoyable story.
So, in this magazine you see a reflection of an age that is still restricted, both socially and financially, but it points the way towards a better future in its articles and adverts.
Are you more of a night or morning person?
When you are a child you either get up early by nature or are made to get up early by your parents for school. By the time you get to your teenage years you still have to get up early because of school but your body is telling you it isn’t ready because you stayed up so late. This isn’t to do with laziness or bad time keeping, but due to the changing nature of your brain which induces a kind of jet lag that puts you into a different time zone.
Now, when I was a teenager I was seen as being firmly in the lazy camp when I got up at 11 or 12 o clock on the weekend or during holidays. In that, my parents were following their parents because little was known about the brain and society worked on a ‘9 to 5’ setting for most people. When my children reached their teens I tended to be a little more tolerant of late weekends when there was nothing specific to get up for. This was partly as a result of my own teenage experiences and partly because, as a teacher, I had learned about the issues for the teenage brain.
Now, here’s a proposal for you to think about. If I were in charge of education, and I am glad I am not given the problems involved (!), I would start Secondary school not only at a different time but at a different age.
When I lived in Worcestershire we had a tripartite system of First, Middle and Senior schools running from 5 to 9, 9 to 13 and 13 to 18 respectively. That was the best system in many ways. Pupils in Middle Schools were able to develop at their own pace educationally and, more importantly, socially. The difference in readiness for Senior school between an 11 year old and a 13 year old is night and day. To nearly every 11 year old, Secondary school is scary or downright terrifying. By the time they get to 13, they are more confident in who they are. Why do you think places like Eton and Harrow start at 13? If it is good enough for the toffs it should be extended to those they would deride as plebs!
Once that school starts, it should be set up very differently in terms of teaching hours. I would start school at 10am and finish at 5pm which would partly sort out the issue of morning lessons which are a waste of time for so many teenagers. The 5pm finish would be helpful in terms of scheduling the lessons at a time that suits those being taught. It wouldn’t be too unwelcome a change for teachers either as, by the time we are halfway through a term we too find early mornings a real challenge! When you look at the experiments that have taken place over the years, they are remarkably consistent in terms of their results. Grades improve, attendance improves and illness reduces. Why won’t we do it across the board? Quite simply, because it’s human nature to say ‘That’s the way it was when I was a kid so that’s how it should be for everyone else’.
If you want to look at some of the theories, this is a good start, but I would be really interested in your views for or against in the comments below.
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 