Exploring with Hazel

Spectacles resting on a diary
[Image: Photos.com]

Listen & get involved

Listen again - and add your diaries for a later series - with Writing The Century on BBC Radio 4.

Related programme

Writing the Century

Barry Dackombe takes our diarists' entries as starting point, and shows how their capturing of the everyday can reveal how we used to live.

Classroom door openings

As the nation remade itself after the war, there was to be a new, tripartite approach to education.

Gender roles

Did the end of the Second World War lead to shift in the balance of power between men and women?

Woman of letters

It's not just when researching history - diaries can help with writing what you know.

Victory, but not abundance

The end of the war didn't mark the end of rationing.

Find Out More

For more about this period of British history, consider The Open University course Total War and Social Change Europe 1914-1955 or to improve your writing skills, consider Creative Writing

Austerity Britain 1945-1951
David Kynaston, Bloomsbury

A History of Modern Britain
Andrew Marr, Macmillan

The People’s Peace: British History 1945-1990
Kenneth O Morgan, Oxford University Press

The People's War - how did war change the face of Britain?

Discover more about researching history with our tips for great research and how-to videos

Decode the secrets of the streets with High Street History

Content last updated: 05/02/2009

About our expert

Dr Barry Dackombe is a tutor with The Open University course Total War and Social Change. He has extensive experience of working with diaries, letters and other personal archives to provide an insight into the recent past. Barry also serves as the university’s academic consultant to the BBC Radio 4 series Writing the Century.