My research has given me tremendous sympathy and admiration for those who somehow, despite dire circumstances, battled through. People such as Tony Widger, who quietly worked away in his kitchen in his underwear at dawn, carefully preparing a cup of tea and a biscuit for him and his wife to have in bed before they embarked upon their exhausting day’s industry of fishing and housework respectively. Or Hannah Cullwick, who was required to complete two hours of work before preparing her employer’s breakfast, and then her own. And not to forget six-year-old William Arnold, who stood alone in a
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