Product Description

The First World War deprived Britain of three-quarters of a million soldiers, with as many more incapacitated. In 1919 a generation of women who unquestioningly believed marriage to be their birthright discovered that there were, quite simply, not enough men to go round. The press ran alarming stories about the 'Problem of the Surplus Women - Two Million who can never become Wives ...'. But behind the headlines were thousands of brave, emancipated individuals forced by a tragedy of historic proportions to rethink their entire futures. Tracing their fates, Virginia Nicholson shows how the single woman of the inter-war decades had to stop depending on men for her income, her identity and her happiness. Some just endured, others challenged the conventions, fought the system and found fulfilment. "Singled Out" pays homage to this remarkable generation of women who were changed by war, and in their turn helped change society.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #125740 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-23
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 312 pages

Literary Review
`Elegant, funny and a compelling read . . . [Nicholson] succeeds
triumphantly in telling the human story behind the demographic statistics'

The Economist, 1 September 2007
This in an inspiring book, lovingly researched, well-written and humane... the period is beautifully caught

The Sunday Telegraph, 2 September 2007
Remarkably perceptive and well-researched ... Virginia Nicholson has produced another extraordinarily interesting work, sensitive, intelligent and well-written.

Customer Reviews

Admirable women
I loved this book. The stories Virginia Nicholson has discovered of women who could never marry, or who did not want to marry, are inspiring and often moving. From the women whose fiancees or husbands were killed in WWI to the women who had never wanted to marry at all but had felt under pressure from society to do so, these women all had to create a life for themselves without a man. For some, it was the making of them. They created their own careers, travelled, made money, formed unconventional relationships and freed themselves from the strictures of society. For others, their singleness, and often, their childlessness, was a sorrow they couldn't get past. Nicholson is to be congratulated for discovering the stories of these women. She doesn't gloss over the problems and heartaches, but she also celebrates the diversity of these women and the lives they made for themselves.

Amazing Women
I was looking at a different book by this same author on Amazon in the US, and they linked to this book, but it was only available in the UK. It cost me almost $50 US dollars, but it was one of the best purchases I will ever make because it changed my life. I know that seems like a dramatic statement, but it is the absolute truth. I am one of the "generation x'ers" so for me the women in this book are of my Great Grandmothers generation, but what amazing women they were. I had always admired my Great Grandmother for her honesty, her stoicism, and now I see that it was not just her, but an entire generation of women. I realized how very much that I have to be thankful to these women for. How much they changed the world, because they had no choice. They were not going to just sit back and let the world go on without them, they changed the world in ways that I am still feeling today. Virginia Nicholson did a wonderful job, this book made me think. It made me think about the past and there future and it made me realize that I have to do something for all the girls who will come after me. I changed my University major to Women's Studies after reading this book and I am so grateful. This book opened my eyes and changed my view of the world. I am still very young and hopefully have a long road in front of me, but this book made me realize that we are all alone in this world and no one can live your life for you, so you have to seize the day and take chances.

A Splendid Book
During the recent serialisation of this book on BBC Radio 4 I was reminded of three very remarkable amd memorable women teachers that I was fortunate enough to encounter at Secondary School over 40 years ago. Obviously at that time I was among many who referred to these elderly spinsters - the youngest of whom was 45 - rather unkindly, in the colloquialisms of the day as "past it", "never had a life", "frustrated", "left on the shelf", "needed a good seeing-to" etc., without ever realising the privations that they must have suffered nor the heavy personal loss that they once bore, be it of a much loved father, brother, uncle or fiance. Yet these women stoically "got on with it" and led fulfilling lives as single, professional women.

Now, through Vera Nicholson's book, which tells the story of the two-million surplus women, we know "why"....