Margins
Our Hidden Lives book cover
Our Hidden Lives
The Everyday Diaries of a Forgotten Britain 1945-1948
2004
First Published
4.15
Average Rating
540
Number of Pages
In 1936 anthropologist Tom Harrison, poet and journalist Charles Madge and documentary filmmaker Humphrey Jennings set up the Mass Observation Project. The idea was simple: ordinary people would record, in diary form, the events of their everyday lives. An estimated one million pages eventually found their way to the archive, and it soon became clear that this was more than anyone could digest. Today, the diaries are stored at the University of Sussex, where remarkably most remain unread. In Our Hidden Lives, Simon Garfield has skilfully woven a tapestry of diary entries in the rarely discussed but pivotal period of 1945 to 1948. The result is a moving, intriguing, funny, at times heartbreaking book.
Avg Rating
4.15
Number of Ratings
414
5 STARS
40%
4 STARS
39%
3 STARS
16%
2 STARS
4%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads

Author

Simon Garfield
Simon Garfield
Author · 21 books
Simon Garfield is a British journalist and non-fiction author. He was educated at the independent University College School in Hampstead, London, and the London School of Economics, where he was the Executive Editor of The Beaver. He also regularly writes for The Observer newspaper.
548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2025 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved