Her Brilliant Career

Her Brilliant Career Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties

Hardback (31 Oct 2013)

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Publisher's Synopsis

In her apron and rubber gloves, a smile lipsticked permanently across her face, the woman of the Fifties has become a cultural symbol of all that we are most grateful to have sloughed off. A homely compliant creature, she knows little or nothing of sex, and stands no chance at all of having a career. She must marry or die.

But what if there was another side to the story?

In this book Rachel Cooke tells the story of ten extraordinary women whose pioneering professional lives - and complicated private lives - paved the way for future generations. Muriel Box, film director. Betty Box, film producer. Margery Fish, plantswoman. Patience Gray, cook. Alison Smithson, architect. Sheila van Damm, rally car driver and theatre owner. Nancy Spain, journalist and radio personality. Joan Werner Laurie, editor. Jacquetta Hawkes, archaeologist. Rose Heilbron, QC.

Plucky and ambitious, they left the house, discovered the bliss of work, and ushered in the era of the working woman.

This is the Fifties, retold: vivid, surprising and, most of all, modern.

Book information

ISBN: 9781844087402
Publisher: Little, Brown
Imprint: Virago
Pub date:
DEWEY: 305.409045
DEWEY edition: 23
Number of pages: xli, 324
Weight: 614g
Height: 216mm
Width: 135mm
Spine width: 32mm