Bessie Wallis (b. 1904)- Purpose and Audience
‘Most working-class autobiographies begin not with a family lineage or a birthdate but rather with an apology for their authors’ ordinariness’ (Gagnier, …
R.W. Morris b.1895: Education and Schooling.
Richard W Morris was a miner’s son from the Pelton Fell area of County Durham. His references to school are relatively few …
R.W. Morris b.1895: Home and Family.
Meals were a preoccupation of most miner’s wives…few miner’s families went hungry. Everything else might have to wait its turn in the …
George Gregory (b.1888): Purpose and Audience
Not once during People > Ideas does George raise the subject of why he’s writing. Neither purpose nor audience is addressed; we …
Purpose and Audience: Harold Heslop, 1898-1983.
Harold Heslop’s autobiography offers a detailed account of his life as the child of a miner, his own experience of working in …
Home & Family: Harold Heslop, 1898-1983.
Given the impressive length of Harold Heslop’s memoir, and the clarity and detail in which he writes about ‘life beneath the fields,’ …
Emanuel Lovekin (1820-1905): An Introduction
Choosing a memoir to study proved to be difficult however it was Emanuel’s story which really captivated me from the beginning. Born …
Mary Norreen Hart (b.1928): Life & Labour
‘There was a sense in which autobiographers found themselves unable to write easily about their family life, or felt that they ought …
R.W. Morris b.1895: Habits, Culture and Belief.
Richard, a miner from County Durham, never states his belief in any definitive way. At no point in the memoir does he …
R.W. Morris b.1895: Researching Writing Lives.
I initially chose my author, Richard W. Morris, because he was a coal miner from County Durham. It resonated with me on …