Round About a Pound a Week (Paperback)

Maud Pember Reeves

ISBN 10: 190315569X / ISBN 13: 9781903155691

Published by Persephone Books Ltd, London, 2008

About this Item

Paperback. This is an important study of working-class life in Lambeth in the early years of the twentieth century which even has tables of figures (weekly expenditure etc). But it is extremely readable, fascinating, poignant and compassionate - as well as being relevant today. In 1909 a group of women, all of them member's of the feminist, left-wing Fabian Women's Group, would regularly leave their comfortable homes in Kensington and Hampstead and call on forty-two families in Lambeth in order to interview them about their everyday life. They wrote down their findings in tiny lined notebooks and in 1912 these were written up as a twenty-page Fabian Tract, 'Family Life on a Pound a Week'.Once the tract had appeared Maud Pember Reeves turned it into "Round about a Pound a Week" with sixteen chapter's covering such topics as housing, thrift, food and mothers' days, producing a book of stunning interest and originality which has never really been rivalled in the hundred years since the first publication in 1913. 'A book addressed to a middle class world of power and condescension' - (Polly Toynbee), its mixture of factual rigour, wit and polemic remains unique. An important study of working-class life in Lambeth in the early years of the twentieth century which even has tables of figures (weekly expenditure etc.). Readable and relevant, Maud Pember Reeves' study is drawn from a 1912 tract entitled 'Family Life on a Pound a Week'. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781903155691

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Round About a Pound a Week (Paperback)
• Publisher: Persephone Books Ltd, London
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 190315569X
• ISBN 13: 9781903155691
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

This is a study of working-class life in Lambeth, London, in the early years of the 20th century that is witty, readable, poignant and fascinating.

In 1909 a group of women, all of them members of the feminist, left-wing Fabian Women's Group, would regularly leave their comfortable homes in Kensington and Hampstead and call on forty-two families in Lambeth in order to interview them about their everyday life. They wrote down their findings and in 1912 these were written up as a twenty-page Fabian Tract which Maud Pember Reeves (1865-1953) and her co-author Charlotte Wilson decided to turn into the more snappily titled Round about a Pound a Week. The sixteen chapters, covering such topics as Housing, Thrift, Food and Mothers’ Days, resulted in a book of stunning interest and originality which has never really been rivalled in the nearly 100 years since first publication in 1913.