3. Norah Hodgkinson, Schoolgirl Diarist

Chapter 3: Norah Hodgkinson, Schoolgirl Diarist, focuses on Norah’s first Letts’ School-girls’ Diary for 1938. I begin by using the printed fore- and end-matter of the diary to introduce Norah, with a focus on the ways in which her life, as a working-class scholarship girl, is not quite contained by Letts's template. This is evidenced in her little subversions: her political comments, the space she devotes to football and motor racing, and her list of crushes on boys and celebrity sportsmen that we see in the ‘memoranda’ pages of her diary. The second half of the chapter, set in December 1938, is written from Norah’s point of view and focuses on her ‘crushes’, opening with Siamese racing driver Prince Birabongshe of Siam and ending with Stoke City striker, Frank Soo. Drawing on her diaries, as well as the memories of my mother and Norah’s neighbours, this part of the chapter reveals in more detail Norah’s family life, her friendships, school and leisure activities, and her dreams for the future.