One Woman's Year

by Stella Martin Currey

This beautifully designed book, first published in 1953, is unusual in being a mixture of commonplace, diary, short story, recipes – and woodcuts. The book is dedicated to Tirzah Garwood (then Ravilious and later Swanzy) but the woodcuts are not by her because she had died two years before. They were done by a friend, Malcolm Ford (who, like Stella Martin Currey’s husband, taught at Colchester Royal Grammar School).

These are the contents for January: there is a quotation, as there is before every month, from the British Merlin (1677), an Almanac known nowadays as Rider’s British Merlin. It starts ‘This is the Season for good husbands to lop and prune superfluous Branches and Fruit trees’ and ends: ‘The best physick is warm diet, warm Cloaths, good Fires, and a merry, honest Wife.’ Then there is a ten-page essay on ‘Books for the Family’. Of course it is now a bit out of date, but the mention of Pamela Brown, Eve Garnett and Belloc’s Cautionary Verses (among dozens of good suggestions) can never be dismissed. After this is a funny piece about a visit to the hairdresser. Next there are a few pages about a burst pipe, a cake recipe, a description of A Visit to the Tower of London, an extract from Jane Eyre and finally an extract from our own Tea with Mr Rochester.

November again has an extract from the British Merlin (‘Set Crab Tree stocks to graft on’), eight pages on the art of embroidery (‘One of the loveliest and most lovable rooms I have ever seen had copies of old flower paintings and they were all embroidered in delicate stitches on very fine yellow silk… Another fascinating adventure in embroidery is to copy an old map’). Then there are suggestions for a Guy Fawkes Party (‘sausage rolls, gingerbread men, conspirator biscuits and toffee’), a quite detailed piece on ‘deciding whether you can eat the mushrooms which grow in the garden’, a recipe for the said biscuits (you cut them to look like conspirators), a short piece on visiting an art gallery with children (pick out the animals eg. the little dog in The Arnolfini Portrait, the dragon in St George and the Dragon), an extract from Elizabeth and her German Garden by our very own Elizabeth von Arnim, and finally an extract from Emma.

But it was her novelist’s eye and ear that makes One Woman’s Year such a gem. In between the sometimes period details are many extremely useful pieces on dressing-up boxes, phrases to be used in thank-you letters, an extract from The Young Visiters, or which flowers to have in vases for every month of the year. One cannot imagine anyone who would not find this book both useful and endearing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Classics, Essays, Memoir, British Literature, Poetry, Modern Classics

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Stella Martin was born in South Africa and moved to England at the age of six. She became a journalist and in 1932 married poet and teacher R.N. Currey. She wrote five novels as well as several plays and books of biography and memoir.

Reviews

[Veronique · Rating 4 out of 5]

What to say of this charming and ever so funny compendium?

Part diary, part commonplace book, Stella Martin Currey gathered a variety of snippets for the whole year. Each month, she shares with us the most liked and disliked jobs, a recipe (Marshmallow Tart!), an excursion, a couple of extracts from novels and poems she liked, and an essay on a variety of subjects, going from the art of boiling an egg and renovating a lawn (both hilarious) to what books she recommends for the family (very interesting) and entertaining foreign visitors.

This description may give you the impression that this is a rather dry read but it is anything but. Through all these ‘articles’, we get a compelling image of what life was for a family in the 1950s, but also that Currey had a brilliant sense of humour and that she could write!

I came to this, being interested in commonplace books since I keep one, albeit in a small way, and what I found turned out to be surprisingly delightful :O)

[JimZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out pretty strong for me but then disappointed me in the last 1/3rd of the book. It became, heaven forbid, boring! Too many recipes and stuff she was talking about in the last third of the book did not interest me (how to amuse children by saving a bunch of old clothes from yesteryear and having them put on plays for their elders with the clothes which supposedly they [the children] enjoyed mightily and I can believe that but it wasn’t all that interesting reading several pages of it). I do not know if this was a memoir…I sort of assumed it was. But in the book her husband is a lawyer but in real life he was a schoolteacher. And in real life her husband’s first name is ‘Ralph’ and in the book it is ‘Charles’. 🤨

The book is divided into the months of the year from January to December and is broken up further into subsections as follows:
• Most liked job — examples include ‘Visit to the Hairdresser’ and ‘Reading Forgotten Books’
• Most disliked job — examples include ‘Burst Pipe’ and ‘Deciding Whether You can Eat Mushrooms’
• Recipe — I was not too keen on any of the recipes…she didn’t just dispense recipes in this subsection…she would place them throughout the book. Ugh.
• Excursion — examples include ’Fishing with Children’ and ‘A Visit to the Tower of London’
• Anthology — she included some short passages from all manner of books including two of my fave authors, Stella Gibbons (Cold Comfort Farm) and Elizabeth von Arnim (Elizabeth and Her German Garden)
• And each chapter has a preface from a 1677 edition of an almanac, British Merlin…tells you when to plant things, and when to purge your blood (blood-letting), and what to food and drink to consume and avoid)

This book is re-issued by Persephone Books, and so. ergo, you can’t get me saying anything bad about a book if it is published by them. 😉

Note:
• In the inside of the back cover it says that the book is dedicated to her friend Tirzah Swanzy (nee Garwood, formerly Ravilious). Out of curiosity (which killed the cat don’t you know) I googled her name because it is certainly is different and I spent over 5 minutes enjoying reading about this woman and the beautiful wood cuts she made…if you have a few minutes take a look at her woodcuts….and her biography is interesting to boot: http://adventuresintheprinttrade.blog... And actually I am impressed that Currey dedicated it using the name she was born with and not her husbands’ names.…dedicated as ‘To the memory of Tirzah Garwood’.
• Persephone says she published her first novel in 1933 and over the next several years 4 more…I can’t find a record of them.

Reviews:
• https://northernreader.wordpress.com/...
• https://www.stuckinabook.com/one-woma... This blogger also made this statement and I believe the person..I just can’t find it in the Persephone edition: “One of my favourite things about this book is that it’s fully illustrated with woodcuts by Malcolm Ford.”
• https://thebooktrunkblog.wordpress.co... (and this blogger gives more info on Malcolm Ford…that he taught alongside Currey’s husband)

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. The style reminds me so much of E.M. Delafield's Provincial Lady. Lots of very domestic entries about food, redecorating, gardening, games for kids, etc., but written with that deliciously snarky, self-deprecating style. Each month follows a similar pattern. It starts with a longer essay about a certain topic (like keeping a box of dress up clothes or flowers in the house every month of the year) and then follows with short entries of recipes and funny mini-topics about all kinds of things: keeping sand out of sandwiches, visiting a Norman Keep, fishing with children, etc. Each month ends with a poem and/or short excerpt from a famous novel, like Emma or Wuthering Heights or To The Lighthouse. This collection of odds and ends makes for easy and fun reading. I'll definitely read this again and read bits and pieces here and there in the future. My two favorite little mini-essays were Picking the First Wild Daffodils and Visiting Sea Caves by Water.

[Linden · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compendium of humorous household essays and recipes for each month of the year. Each chapter also contains an excerpt from classic literature and poetry.

[Anne Fenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

1953, a year in the life of Stella Martin Currey. Charming. 12 months, each with tips for household living , still affected by post war conditions in UK. I liked her accounts of things like getting a chest of drawers upstairs, or planting a lawn. Recipes, family activities, gardening plans, recommended excursions , brief extracts of poetry or novels. Perfect settling down reading.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is divided into monthly chapters. There is a recipe for each month along with a topical essay, a "most liked job" and "most disliked job", a recommended excursion, and some quotes from fiction and poetry. There are lots of gems, but I particularly enjoyed the "most disliked job" for December - "Making children write thank-you letters" LOL

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful slice of social history. It always amazes me that history that is nearer to us in physical time can seem more alien than history that is much further away. I have far less problem connecting with say, The Great Fire of London and how life was lived then than I do with this account of a housewife's year from the Fifties. This is a beautifully produced book, as you would expect from Persephone. The woodcuts that break up the months are stunning. This is like an almanac. Things to read, things to do, places to visit, seasonal recipes etc. Sometimes the writing is very amusing. I enjoyed the section about the chimneys having to be rebuilt. Sometimes they're a little snobbish for modern tastes, but she writes well and it's a great glimpse of an age that is virtually unrecognisable today.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 1953 book, beautifully republished by Persephone, is a sort of household book of the year, as a section is devoted to each month. Not that it is a book of out of date household advice, though it does offer recipes and other notes of monthly tasks, it is a sort of observation of the changing seasons. It takes a light view of the most liked and disliked jobs of the month, ranging from the much liked “Reading Forgotten Books During Spring Cleaning” to the disliked “Looking Your Passport in the Face”. There is a quote from the “British Merlin” of 1677 for every month, in which characteristically dated language explores what plants and crops to plant, particular “Physick” concerns, and foods to avoid. A sharp sense of humour pervades every piece, especially the longer observation of an element of life which is written up in full. This is a book of funny incidents, wry comments and lovely realisations. Although written much later, this book reminded me strongly of “The Diary of a Provincial Lady”, with a harassed woman trying to do her best when rationing and other difficulties beset her.

There are several elements in each section, beginning with an illustration specific to the month, featuring activities common to the month such as swimming in June, or going to the theatre in December. Then there is a piece which covers such subjects as “Books for the Family” and the “Dressing - Up Box”, which recommends these as activities for the family, with reference to her own to sons and family involvement. The funniest ones are undoubtedly “How not to Renovate a Lawn” which deals with the family’s efforts to renovate a lawn which is targeted by a dog on a daily basis, involving vast amounts of seed and black cotton, and “Eggs”, which explains the author’s inability to boil eggs owing to frequent distractions and accidents involving eggs. These are honest accounts with potentially added humour, but also reflecting the sort of anecdotes common to many families. Another one recalls the author’s addiction to furniture auctions, which on one occasion leads to the purchase of a large wooden case for an attic workroom, which is nearly impossible to get up the stairs, leading to fears of her husband being trapped on the upper floors of the house when it gets stuck on a bannister. This book does not deal with adventurous humour, rather the sort of amusing story common to everyday life. The recipe for each month includes some unfashionable ingredients such as lard, but do provide a window into the favoured food of the era. Each month also includes a short anthology of relevant pieces of poetry and prose, such as March’s pairing of Dorothy Wordsworth’s diary extract and William’s famous daffodil poem.

This is a lovely book which presents large aspects of a woman’s life in the 1950s. While undoubtedly a period piece, there are elements of life which are still recognisable today even if some of the details have changed . As a piece of vivid social history it is a good read, as a handbook of a year, a charming insight into progress, and a lovely book to own. As someone who enjoys novels from this period, it is a fascinating background read. I am so glad that Persephone has reproduced this book with such care and attention to detail, and that I had the opportunity to read and review it.

[Moonbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy it

[MJG · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of great character, with a handsome cover.

[Anna P (whatIreallyRead) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🌟 I discovered this one when browsing the publisher's catalogue - Persephone books tends to publish lesser-known or forgotten books written by women in the mid-20th century. This one looked interesting: a journal entry for every month of the year, interspersed with the author's woodcut illustrations - right up my alley! It seemed like picking it up in January would be perfect.

Each month's entry had the same structure:
- a quote from the British Merlin (1677) for the month
- a description of the month's event or preoccupation, such as renovating a lawn or picking books for family reading
- "most liked job of the month", such as visiting the hairdresser
- "most disliked job of the month", such as repairing a burst pipe
- a recipe, such as tuck box cake
- an excursion - description of where she took kids or had a family outing that month, e.g. a library, museum or picnic
- anthology section: a short excerpt from one or a few novels, such as Emma by Jane Austen, or a poem or two

I expected more of a memoir, a women's progress throughout a year to some goal, or through some transformative hardship, perhaps some introspection or discussion of important issues.

Instead, this was a journal that wouldn't stir or ruffle you in any way, with trivial domestic topics, and minor annoyances at worst. The format would actually fit with a modern day public blog very neatly.

You could say it was boring, with major themes being gardening, cooking and childcare, all proper and middle-class. But at the same time, it was soothing to immerse myself in a world where the biggest concern is to pick which seasonal flowers to decorate the rooms with and where to buy them at a bargain. It somewhat reminded me of Diary of a Provincial Lady, except that one was more humorous and commented on people's relationships and posturing, whereas One Woman's Year barely dealt with other people at all.

Anyway, this one felt unremarkable, but I enjoyed reading it still.

[Gina House · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful!!! I can't tell you how much I loved his month-by-month book! The set up of the book is perfect - month by month and each starts with a by-gone quote and woodcut illustration. So lovely!

Stella Martin Currey has a smooth, cozy and amusing tone of voice in her writing. It was such a treat to have a variety of things to read each month. Anecdotes about her family, recipes, excerpts from her favorite stories, seasonal information...anything and everything that a woman (or any person) might want to know about that month.

Her writing style reminds me a bit of Gladys Taber (whose books I love so much!) and I only wish she had a book for every single year! Or, at least, one or two more. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves seasonal reading, Persephone books, or matters about family, friends and food.

The perfect gift for a book-loving friend!

[A J HOOPER · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quirky, funny, practical snippets of memoir, advice and household hints, written for each of the 12 months of the year. I've tried hard to find out more about the author but, so far, failed dismally. Any info would be gratefully received.

[Kay Robart · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review here:

https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2020...

[Leonie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming, amusing, engaging diary of a year not long after the war. With added extracts and recipes.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, but didn’t absolutely love it. It is a really interesting collection of passages from books, poems, recipes and anecdotes about the author’s life. It has monthly sections which all start with an extract from the British Merlin of 1677 relevant to the month. It’s set in 1950s Britain, still feeling the affects of WW2 to an extent. Fascinating to think this was written just a few years before my birth, but no part of that world really remains today.

[Catie · Rating 4 out of 5]

**4.5 Stars**

Thoroughly enjoyed dipping in and out of this each month during 2021. Such a lovely compendium of, recipes, household tips, excursions, and snippets of literature and poetry Currey clearly took considerable effort to curate. Will be revisiting this every so often, throughout the years to come, even if it’s just a passage or two. Highly recommend!

[Rosebud · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolute delight to read! A mixture of diary, anecdotes, extracts, recipes. A great example of social history from the 1950s and very readable. In terms of modern feminism, I found it very interesting to see how differently she viewed men, and her role as a wife, mother and woman in general. Very different from how this is viewed today.

[Lin Tarrant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading this book a month at a time over the year. A glimpse back into a different era and everyday life. Some amusing stories along the way especially how to move a large chest upstairs! Loved reading about sending daffodils 'up to London' on the train and entertaining an overseas visitor. A book to be savoured and definitely to read again.

[Stephanie Dargusch Borders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful and lovely. While some of the content was certainly outdated and at times boring, the charm makes up for it all. I read a month per day as a palate cleanser between other books and I looked forward to Stella’s advice and musings daily.

[Lisa of Hopewell]

I learned of this book here: https://youtu.be/Y2_NP_tJ3b8

[Eleanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really delightful book to read throughout the year!

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming insight into a mother and housewife of yesteryear. Easy to pick up and put down.