Her Brilliant Career

September 1, 2014
Acclaimed journalist Cook’s first book is an extensively researched narrative of the lives of 10 remarkable women who managed successful careers in 1950s Britain. The author works in details of their careers in fields such as gardening, cooking, archaeology, architecture, filmmaking, and law, as well as all their setbacks and triumphs. She also tackles her subjects’ private lives head on—from romance and motherhood to love triangles, affairs, and heartbreak. While the book provides a full sense of their cultural milieux at the time, including the social circles they travelled in, current events, and contemporaries in their fields. The excessive amount of detail, however, often becomes distracting: is there really a need for commentary on the state of a lawyer’s mascara? Unnecessary descriptions of the lives of people with whom these women had only a passing acquaintance are also frequent. Overall this book provides a thorough picture of these women’s lives, but their characters are drowned by the flood of detail. B&w photos. Agent: Peter Straus, (U.K.).

July 1, 2014

A hit in Britain, where it reached Amazon UK's Top 100, this book profiles ten professional women from the 1950s who broke ground for the working women of the Sixties onward as feminism hit its stride. Among those featured: journalist/broadcaster Nancy Spain and Academy Award-winning director and screenwriter Muriel Box. The accent is English, but the stories should be fascinating, and there's special in-house love for this book.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2014

Writer and critic Cooke's (contributor The Observer; New Statesman) debut asks the question: What were the lives of professional women like in postwar Britain? Inspired by an antique Ercol sideboard, the author wonders at the ambitions of the women who strove to own such a piece. Turning to a collection of memoirs, diaries, letters, interviews, and first-hand accounts, Cooke recalls the lives of ten women whose work had an impact on the way we think of modern film, architecture and landscaping, cooking, and even law--despite their names being relatively unknown today. Journalism/broadcaster Nancy Spain and Academy Award-winning director and screenwriter Muriel Box are among those featured. The stories are insightful and crafted with care; foregoing the nostalgia and idealization that often colors how we imagine the roles of women in the Fifties. The experiences described are anything but ordinary, though these women are not necessarily the feminist trailblazers some readers may expect to find. Cooke makes no assumptions regarding her subjects' attitudes and presents a balanced account that considers their personal and public lives. VERDICT A satisfying read for anyone interested in narratives about women's lives in the early to mid-20th century. [See Prepub Alert, 6/8/14.]--Gricel Dominguez, Florida International Univ. Lib.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2014
British journalist Cooke recounts the stories of 10 women whose personal and professional lives shattered the common image of a repressed 1950s homemaker. Though the seven chapters (one chapter weaves together the life stories of three women) can be enjoyed as stand-alone biographies, when read as a whole, the narrative creates a fascinating portrait of cultural life in post-World War II Britain. The war upended social roles in Britain. During wartime, women filled jobs men vacated, but at the war's conclusion, the veterans wanted their positions back. How should the women who wanted to work outside the home during the 1950s pursue that goal? Cooke noted how, for women on a career path, the route forward was a fraught one. "Those who embarked on careers," she writes, "had to be thick-skinned: immune to slights and knock-backs, resolute in the face of tremendous social expectation and prepared for loneliness." The author's subjects include a best-selling cookbook author, a magazine editor, a rally car driver, a writer and popular celebrity, an architect, a gardener, a director, a producer, an archaeologist and a judge. The author uses elements of published memoirs, diaries or letters, and she also interviewed numerous friends, relatives and colleagues of each of her subjects. Cooke includes two delightful bonus sections, adding another layer to her snapshot of the era. One discusses fashion in the '50s, and the other lists "Some Good and Richly Subversive Novels by Women, 1950-60." For American readers, many of these women will be unfamiliar, and some of the cultural reference points may not click. Regardless, each of the portraits illuminatingly details the struggles and triumphs of these women, who laid the groundwork for working women in the 1960s and beyond. Cooke's history of these uncelebrated heroines admirably fills in the gaps in the continuing story of women's role in the workplace.

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