This week on the Secret Library we hear from author Ysenda Maxtone Graham, who is looking for contributors to her next book…

I’m an author and journalist called Ysenda Maxtone Graham. The book I’m writing at the moment is going to be called Jobs for the Girls, all about what happened to women in the years between 1945 and 1985, after they left school and started making their way in the world of jobs and careers. 

Thanks to help from the network of Leeds Libraries, I’ve already had a few fascinating chats with women from the Leeds and Bradford area, but I’d love some more. I’d like to talk to people who left school at 15 and went to work in factories and mills – Lister Mills, for example. Also if you worked in shops, department stores, coffee houses or in any other jobs. 

Did you carry on living at home? Did you give part of your wages to your parents for your upkeep? What was it like in the workplace? What happened when and if you got married and had children? 

I’m aiming to capture the atmosphere of the workplace in those post-war years going up to the 1970s and 80s. The Friday afternoons, the clocking in and out, the lunch breaks, the bosses, the parties (if there were any), and the experience of doing the work itself, of whatever kind it was. 

If you could get in touch with me by emailing ysenda@talk21.com, I’d be very grateful, and we could then have a chat on the phone.