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Eating for Victory and Make Do and Mend
DURING WWII millions of people had to make do as best they could after food rationing was introduced in January 1940, followed by a further rationing on clothes in June of the same year.
A series of Government leaflets were distributed giving advice on everything from ‘How to make the most of the fat ration’ and choosing foods for fitness, to repairing, refurbishing and recycling everything they owned and used.
A collection of these original WWII information leaflets are now published for the first time in two richly reminiscent books from Michael O’Mara (£9-99 each). As well as being a fascinating documentation of wartime austerity, they are a showcase of delightful 1940s design and illustration. Containing full colour facsimiles of the original leaflets, the cloth-bound books are charmingly old-fashioned.
Make Do and Mend – Keeping Family and Home Afloat on War Rations advises through leaflets on how best to avoid wasting valuable resources by recycling curtains in dresses and old sheets into underwear rather than buying new clothes. There are also ideas on how to save fuel; storing, mending and washing garments and linens to extend their usage; and even how to make slippers for the whole family.
Eating for Victory – Healthy Home Front Cooking on War Rations contains leaflets distributed by the Ministry of Food and give healthy, economical and environmentally friendly advice, including recipes for steamed and boiled puddings, tips on how to use and prepare green vegetables and hints about how to reconstitute dried eggs and use them as though they were fresh.
The two books are available post free in the UK, for £9-99 for one book or £18-00 for two books ordered together (saving almost £2 off the published price).
Prices including postage to Europe are £10-75 for one book or £20-00 for two books ordered together.
Prices including postage to Rest of the World are £12-50 for one book or £23-00 for two books ordered together.
Eating for Victory – Healthy Home Front Cooking on War Rations £9.99 (UK ORDERS) INCLUDING POSTAGE/PACKING
Make Do and Mend – Keeping Family and Home Afloat on War Rations £9.99 (UK ORDERS) INCLUDING POSTAGE/PACKING
The Two Books: Make Do and Mend & Eating for Victory £18.00 (UK ORDERS) INCLUDING POSTAGE/PACKING Check Basket | Buy Goods
Eating for Victory – Healthy Home Front Cooking on War Rations £10.75 (EUROPEAN ORDERS) INCLUDING POSTAGE/PACKING
Make Do and Mend – Keeping Family and Home Afloat on War Rations £10.75 (EUROPEAN ORDERS) INCLUDING POSTAGE/PACKING
The Two Books: Make Do and Mend & Eating for Victory £20.00 (EUROPEAN ORDERS) INCLUDING POSTAGE/PACKING Check Basket | Buy Goods
Eating for Victory – Healthy Home Front Cooking on War Rations £12.50 (OVERSEAS ORDERS) INCLUDING POSTAGE/PACKING
Make Do and Mend – Keeping Family and Home Afloat on War Rations £12.50 (OVERSEAS ORDERS) INCLUDING POSTAGE/PACKING
The Two Books: Make Do and Mend & Eating for Victory £23.00 (OVERSEAS ORDERS) INCLUDING POSTAGE/PACKING Check Basket | Buy Goods
The 1940s Look
Recreating the Fashions, Hairstyles and Make-up of the Second World War
This new book is going to prove extremely popular for everyone who lived through the 1940s and amongst the growing number who love to dress in clothes of the period.
Author Mike Brown takes a close look at fashions of wartime Britain and the impact of rationing, the Utility scheme, changing tastes and the demands that everyday life had on the styles people war. As well as describing the clothes and underwear, hairstyles and make-up, and many various accessories, this extensively illustrated book presents a guide to the typical prices of the period and allows a peek at what was considered to be the perfect figure for a man and a woman.
PRICE: £18-50 (inc UK p&p), or £21-00 (inc airmail to Europe), or £24-50 (inc airmail Rest of World).
The 1940s Look £18.50 (UK ORDERS) INCLUDING POSTAGE/PACKING
The 1940s Look £21.00 (OVERSEAS ORDERS) INCLUDING POSTAGE/PACKING Check Basket | Buy Goods
The 1940s Look £24.50 (UK ORDERS) INCLUDING POSTAGE/PACKING
David Weston’s England
This collection of more than 120 paintings show, for the first time, the range of David Weston’s superb work over his 36-year career as a full-time artist. His fine landscapes and acclaimed transport paintings, in both oil and watercolour, give an insight into what is so special about England and the English. Often they show a way of life that is fast disappearing or may already be simply a memory. PRICE: £29-99 (inc UK p&p) £34-99 (European airmail) £37-99 (Rest of the World airmail) SUBSCRIBER DISCOUNT: If you are a subscriber to Best of British, you are entitled to £1 discount. (Please indicate that you are a subscriber when ordering).
The Edwardian Scrapbook Available within the UK only. This brand new large format, 60-page book is a testament to one of the high points in British graphic design in an era which saw dramatic advances in many areas affecting life and politics, travel and pleasure and the availability of a whole host of new products and publications. This brand new large format, 60-page book is a testament to one of the high points in British graphic design in an era which saw dramatic advances in many areas affecting life and politics, travel and pleasure and the availability of a whole host of new products and publications. The full colour impact of the Edwardian era comes back to life with the posters, packaging, song sheets, souvenirs, newspapers, magazines, comics, toys and games, and saucy picture postcards. The Edwardian Scrapbook has drawn together over 1,300 images selected from the Robert Opie Collection, creating a remarkable insight into British life from Edward VII's accession in 1901 to his death in 1910. This was the era that first saw teddy bears and Peter Rabbit, Meccano and Plasticine, Marmite and Perrier water, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Sketch, the Boy Scout movement and the birth of aviation.
Offer price: £19-95 (inc £5 per Scrapbook order for UK delivery. If you are ordering more than one Scrapbook, the first book will be charged at £19-95 and subsequent books charged at £14-95 each).
The 1970s Scrapbook Available within the UK only.
If you can remember Chopper bikes, Party Seven, Hai Karate, Stylophones, Klackers or swaying on platform shoes, then you must be recalling the decade in which television was now transmitted in colour, glam rock dazzled audiences and a nation grappled with the intricacies of decimalisation. The tenth in the series, Robert Opie's 1970s Scrapbook contains over 1,400 items, recalling the sights and sounds of the decade as well as merchandising spin-offs for pop idols and TV heroes, consumables, fashions and furnishings, film posters and football fever, confectionery, cigarettes and cars, and, of course, the Silver Jubilee.
The Victorian Scrapbook Available within the UK only. In an era when social change and new technology heralded an industrialised economy. Sail was replaced by steam, the stagecoach by rail and the motor car was just appearing. Cheaper printing and colour lithography led to a mass of material, much of which has survived in remarkable condition. The music sheets, advertisements, greetings cards and children’s book illustrations that number amongst the 1,000 images in The Victorian Scrapbook give us an insight into the life and times of our forebears. They all combine to celebrate a time when Britain ruled an Empire ‘on which the sun never sets’.
The 1910's Scrapbook Available within the UK only. Among the key events of the decade were the Coronation of King George V, the suffragette movement and the sinking of the Titanic. Above all, however, it was the decade of the Great War.
The 1910s Scrapbook brings a new focus to this time with over 1,000 images telling the tale of ordinary people - their courage and humour, their patriotism and fortitude in the face of Zeppelin air raids, rationing and the decimation of a generation. Parallels are drawn with the Second World War and this is a testament to those involved in the conflict of the Great War.
The 1920's Scrapbook Available within the UK only.
Robert Opie's latest book, The 1920s Scrapbook, published by New Cavendish Books, is the ninth title in this series to be published since 1995. It contains over 1,100 images selected from his collection including comics and magazines, holiday brochures, fashion journals and accessories, branded goods and household items, cigarette packets, postcards, toys and games, images of the latest transport achievements, and memorabilia from royalty to the British Empire Exhibition. It is a record of hundreds of things that often get quickly discarded at the time and brings back to life the moods and moments of the era.
The 1930's Scrapbook Available within the UK only. Although times were hard, for many the quality of life in the 1930s was better. Change brought a better standard of living and numerous new products helped the daily routine. Sliced bread had just reached the table and Butlin’s holiday camps had recently opened. Electrical appliances were a boon to housewives without servants, affordable motor cars made access to the countryside easier. New fun included Dinky Toys, Monopoly and a stream of delectable confectionery (Mars bars, KitKat, Black Magic).
On a darker note, the death of George V was followed by Edward VIII’s abdication. By the end of the Thirties, television held exciting promise for the future, but a growing tension focused on impending war.
The Wartime Scrapbook Available within the UK only. This extraordinary scrapbook of wartime Britain - from Blitz to Victory - gives a vivid insight into daily life on the home front. Despite being a time of rationing, black-outs and air raids, those central facets of the British character - dry and often raucous humour - coupled with a stiff upper lip, spilled out as the imagery of this book reveals.The period saw women's jobs proliferate in the services and factories. Glamour was found in liquid silk stockings, while romance blossomed in the blackouts. Milk bottle tops were emblazoned with slogans of encouragement and everyone dug for victory to supplement their powdered egg rations.Drawn from Robert Opie's unrivalled collection The Wartime Scrapbook profusely illustrates a unique period in history - the song sheets, magazine covers, comic postcards, fashion and food, games, propaganda posters and a wealth of wartime ephemera whose very survival is remarkable.
The 1950s Scrapbook Available within the UK only. Gathered together in this colourful creation of over 1,000 products and images, The 1950s Scrapbook conjures up the life and times of the decade. From the Festival of Britain and the Coronation of Elizabeth II to the abundance of toys and television programmes, every facet of the era is covered.Memorable and evocative, The 1950s Scrapbook illustrates an extraordinary period of British history, from rationing to rock'n'roll, from Archie Andrews to the Mini Minor.It was a time when self-service shopping was a novelty, frozen foods a wonder, and detergents like Tide, Daz and Omo were the latest whirl for the washing machine. The flowing fashions were styled from nylon or Terelyene, the space age was full of Dan Dare, and children watched the antics of Muffin the Mule, Hand or Andy Pandy. Decision time for girls was simpler - would their hair be in pigtails or a ponytail?
The 1960s Scrapbook Available within the UK only. Known as the Swinging Sixties, life in Britain took on a new beat as its youth set the pace - mini skirts and Mini cars, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, boutiques and discotheques, the Twist and the Bossa Nova. A boost to British pride came when England won the World Cup, while James Bond movies heightened the spirit of excitement, and the E-type Jaguar became an aspirational dream machine. Fictional space stories of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet or Dr Who and the Daleks took on a new reality when man landed on the moon. Back on earth television portrayed more mundane happenings in the new soap, Coronation Street, and the police series Z Cars. It was in 1963 that Robert Opie began to save examples of contemporary products, and many of them appear among the 1,400 items in this book. It has been his endeavour to understand the changes in our consumer society.
The Royal Scrapbook Available within the UK only. The latest souvenir book in this wonderfully nostalgic series contains 60 colour pages and over 1,500 illustrations, The Royal Scrapbook gloriously gathers nostalgic images of royalty together, exploring memorable moments of pomp and circumstance from Victorian times to the present day. The book displays the changing taste and tempo of each era, the trends and fashions, the graphics and commercial art. For many, these royal mementoes will conjure up the nostalgia of watching the coronation on television in 1953, standing in the crowds to see a procession go by, or memories of the street party to celebrate the 1977 silver jubilee. From traditional souvenir mugs, flags, badges and jigsaws to the bizarre and fanciful, such as bread wrappers or rock T-shirts, the 1,500 items in The Royal Scrapbook have all been selected from the Robert Opie Collection. They richly illustrate the changing face of the royal family, along with their trials and trepidations, from Edward VIII’s abdication to the Charles and Di wedding kiss.
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