| Title | 18. Danny |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Alison Twells(author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0461.18 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0461/chapters/10.11647/obp.0461.18 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Alison Twells |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2025-11-10 |
| Long abstract | Chapter 18: Danny, opens with a long-awaited letter from Danny, written from Scotland in March 1945. Danny is about to be sent to Norway to oversee the transition to peacetime. I try to research his squadron number, now included in Norah’s diary, to throw light on his whereabouts during the previous eighteen months, but there are too many unknowns. Danny’s regular letters throughout that spring and summer show that he has sex on his mind. The phrase that Norah uses to describe his request is ‘give in’ and, drawing on contemporary sources, I ponder the meaning of those words in a culture in which women are unable to be sexually active and remain respectable. As Norah celebrates VJ Day, Danny is hospitalised in Tromsø. Norah has a new portrait photograph taken, to send to Danny as he awaits his demobilisation. |
| Page range | pp. 187–196 |
| Print length | 10 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
Alison Twells is Professor of Social and Cultural History at Sheffield Hallam University. A widely published scholar, her work primarily explores 19th-century local and global history, with a focus on empire, antislavery and missions, and C19th and C20th women’s life-writing. Her academic publications include The Civilising Mission and the English Middle Class: the ‘heathen’ at home and overseas, 1792-1850 (Palgrave, 2009) and Women in Transnational History: Gendering the Local and the Global (Routledge, 2016)), and numerous articles and book chapters. Her recent publications include contributions to History Workshop Journal, The Historical Journal, and Women’s History Review, focusing on creative historical methods, servicemen’s letters and wartime intimacy, and explorations of emotion in ordinary pocket diaries. Always uneasy with academics writing only for each other, Alison is actively engaged in public and creative history initiatives. She has been a pioneer in developing community-facing history in UK universities and has written resources for history education in schools and a city walk about the life in late-C19th Sheffield of activist Edward Carpenter. She has talked about Norah, writing working-class lives, and history, fiction and life-writing, at various events. See www.alisontwells.com