There are so many good ideas here. Good luck Astrea!

Lots of helpful advice - I've nabbed one of the paperbacks on Amazon, and have quite a lot of the crime fiction on my Kindle already, so that's a good start.

Fascinated to see how many people are looking at the same period - maybe we're setting a trend?

Thanks all

Good luck with it, Astrea!

maybe we're setting a trend

if that's so the trend will no doubt be be well and truly over by the time I start properly researching - never mind writing - my 20s/30s novel, seeing as how slowly I'm progressing with the current one! I reckon I'm looking at at least another two years with the current wip <sobs quietly in the corner>.

good luck with the research - sometimes it's really fun, and you get so carried away with it you forget why you're doing it in the first place!

you get so carried away with it you forget why you're doing it in the first place!

Yes, I'll suddenly find myself in the far reaches of Wikipedia, and realise I've forgotten what i was looking up!

I'm having a great time reading up on everything

It's also managing to stop me fiddling with the current NiP - I'm trying to follow good advice and put it away for a couple of weeks before I do the final read-through. It's so hard resisting the urge to keep fiddling with it...

Have you tried your local library by any chance or enquire whether you can get access to academic books from a university library. If you are a member of Freelance Markets, it is worth paying for a special identity card so you can enter such premises if you want to or your local records office. Did you watch the House of Elliot by any chance on television [ITV3] If not, a pity, would have given you an insight into the clothes worn in that period. Don't forget Downtown Abbey in the Autumn, that might help as well. Do a search on Jeeves, I swear by that site.

Useful suggestions there, thanks Forgham.

I do vaguely remember 'The House of Elliot' and I've read enough period fiction to know what people wore, but I need something really detailed about the minutiae of everyday life.

I've pre-ordered something I saw on Amazon, and I'm continuing to read various sources, so hopefully I'm getting there.

Astrea, I've had happy hunting for this sort of stuff in places like the giftshops in National Trust houses, and Past Times shops - there always seem to be little books about particular periods, and particular jobs and memoirs and things.

Actually, I've also done well in public libraries, with series of picture/keepsake books called things like The Thirties. I suspect they're mainly for occupational therapists looking for things to read with dementia patients at the Day Centre, but they're dead useful, because by definition they're full of common-or-garden things.

I have got a copy of The Feminine Middle Brow Novel - still haven't read it cover to cover. I bought it from a shop in HayonWye over the Internet and it was nowhere near the prices quoted on here.

I suggest Testament of Experience by Vera Brittain, which isn't as good as Testament of Youth 9In my memory - read in yoof so not reliable) but she does write well and she's good on the personal and social aftermath of WWI.

Did you buy that recently Jem? I can only find it on Amazon for £30 or ABE where the cheapest is £28 once you add on the postage.

Michelle I bought it a few years ago now.

I've been looking for my copy, and can't find it on my shelves.

I loved the House of Elliott. But can now only think of the French and Saunders take off, House of Idiot, when one of the characters had a pair of chelsea buns strapped to her ears to mimic that 'heidi' haircut!