Just what it says on the wrapper, this book is an encapsulated look at the lives and careers of 10 British women at their professional peak during the 50's, a decade that, in my entirely biased opinion, was the beginning of the end in so many ways.

But not for women; they were just starting to gather momentum. Rachel Cooke writes about these women in an extremely casual, laid-back style that is often funny and always easy to read and entertaining. She manages, in just a few dozen pages at most, to give the reader a really good feel for these women, their lives, and the trails they blazed.

For at least half of them, I have to say, that feeling is that no matter how successful they were, they were also a hot mess. There is a long trail of deceit, neglect, and dishonesty behind some of these 'extraordinary' women; at least 3 of them should have had their children taken from them (although that's just my opinion of course). By the third chapter, I was wondering why, as much as I was absolutely loving Cooke's writing, I was continuing to read about these women; they may have achieved great things professionally but they hadn't done it with any grace or integrity.

But perhaps Cooke wanted to get the brilliant, scandalous, and brilliantly scandalous out of the way at the outset, because the remaining 70% of the book highlights women who were able to achieve great things and make a name for themselves without neglecting their children or cheating on their partners. Mostly. Well, ok, they did it without neglecting or abandoning their kids.

The highlights for me were reading about Margery Fish and Rose Heilbron, gardener extraordinaire and the first female QC, respectively. Margery's subversiveness towards her husband was hilarious and her ethos on gardening is exactly the same as my own; building and maintaining 2 acres of gardens by herself, however, is way out of my league. I loved, though, that she didn't even begin what she would become so famous for until she was in her 40s.

Rose Heilbron, however, was truly the most inspiring woman showcased in this book. Not only were her achievements truly extraordinary by any standard, not just 'for a woman', but the manner in which she went about achieving them makes her truely worthy of admiration. The way Cooke writes it, she went through her life with such grace, integrity, intelligence and rationalism, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for some huge scandal to be revealed, which is a sad commentary on what I've come to expect from 'achievers'. Fortunately, no such scandal was revealed. This woman should be the role model of every female (AND male) in the world; not for what she achieved, but for how she achieved it.

As far as these books go, I think Her Brilliant Career would appeal to a broad audience. Cooke manages to write about history without causing chronic drowsiness, and about feminism without beating the reader over the head with it. Instead she allows these women's lives to tell the stories they need to tell and in the process both entertain and inform the casual reader. ( )

A fascinating look at the role of women in the 1950s, this book shows us that there were definitely exceptions to the stereotypical housewife we've been shown. This book gives mini biographies of some of the extraordinary women who forged careers in a man's world and paved the way for the opportunities that women enjoy today. From race car drivers to writers to architects, we are given an in depth look at the careers and private lives of these pioneers. If you are interested in women's history, this is the book for you.

Bettina P. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

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Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties by Rachel Cooke is a highly recommended collection of seven essays that cover the lives and accomplishments of ten widely diverse women and their careers in the 1950's in the UK. Many of these women were the first in their careers, to make a mark. Cooke observes that, “One of the great upsides of being the first was that guilt, as it pertained to working women, had not yet been invented.”

The women presented in Her Brilliant Career include a diverse group: Patience Gray, cookbook writer; Nancy Spain, writer and personality; Joan Werner Laurie, magazine editor; Sheila van Damm, rally-car driver and theatre manager; Alison Smithson, architect; Margery Fish, gardener; Muriel Box, director, and Betty Box, producer; Jacquetta Hawkes, archaeologist; and Rose Heilbron, QC., the first woman to sit at the Old Bailey. Her Brilliant Career also includes a Select Bibliography, Acknowledgements, and an Index.

In the introduction, Cooke points out "I prefer the idea of role models, inspirational figures who make you want to cheer. The extraordinary, mould-breaking women you will find in the pages that follow weren’t perfect. They were, like all human beings, flawed. They doubted themselves, they got in muddles, they made mistakes; feeling defensive, they sometimes seemed difficult and distant even to those who loved them. They certainly did not – dread phrase – ‘have it all’, or not all of the time, at any rate. Their children sometimes had a hard time of it. But they loved what they did and they got on with doing it as best they could in far less equal times than our own. If that isn’t encouraging – a kind of rallying call to the twenty-first-century battle-weary – I don’t know what is."
Isn't that the truth?

All the women lived in the post WWII UK, but readers not in the UK, should should still find inspiration from these ten women and what their accomplishments meant for the women of today. All the essays can be read as stand alone pieces, but as Cooke writes, "But if you read all seven of them there will, I hope, be a cumulative effect, the culture of the Fifties – its food, its architecture, its popular culture, its habits and its opinions – revealed through the lives of ten revolutionaries and taste makers who just happen to have been women. I hope these stories make people reconsider the ‘lost’ decade between the end of the war and feminism. I hope, too, that they speak to readers everywhere, whichever city or continent they happen to be reading in."

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of HarperCollins for review purposes.


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Interesting but a bit gossipy. I have no idea what the criteria was for choosing the 10 women, three of them were in a menaage too so it's a bit of a stretch because their lives were quite interwoven, and two others share a chapter too. Instead of it being about 10 women it's more about 7 women whose lives also intersected with others that are integral parts of their lives. While interesting I wanted more.

It started generally talking about a variety of women in the fifties and how the author had to exclude several people from her choice, some of whom I wish she had written about. I had never heard of any of the women included before and I found it interesting to read about them and see about their lives and it sometimes felt like they were very overshadowed by their partners.

In the kitchen with Patience Gray is about a cookbook writer who has lapsed from popularity.

The Show must go on featured Nancy Spain, Joan Werner Laurie and Sheila van Damm who had relationships with each other and were determined to make headways in their chosen careers. The chapter head "Three trouser-wearing characters" made me a little non-plussed, with Katherine Hepburn trouser-wearing while unusual was not as strange as some people would like to think. The author seems to use it as a shortcut to indicate that they were lesbian.

The chapter on Alison Smithson, Architect left me cold.

The chapter on Margery Fish made me want to visit her garden.

The Brontes of Shepherd's Bush was about Muriel Box and Betty Box, female director and producer respectively was interesting where these were women who carved careers out for themselves despite resistance.

Digging for Victory about Jacquetta Hawkes seemed to be more about her husband J B Priestly and their relationship than about her career.

Rose Heilbron QC was the final chapter, about a talented lawyer who carved a path for other women to follow and while she broke some barriers it still isn't easy for women in law.

Fashion in the 50s and some novels are mentioned and honestly I was left wanting. I wanted to know more about their careers, more about the balancing acts they had to have. Many of them had servants to help but others didn't and I wonder how they kept going.

It wasn't a bad read but I was left wanting more. ( )

It's not really surprising that the women of the 1950's weren't all obedient housewives content to stay home while their husbands went out and conquered the world, but it is fun to read about some of the more outstanding rule flouters. The lively, enthusiastic style of writing makes this joint biography of unconventional women in a more conventional time very entertaining to read. Included among the ten women profiled is an archaeologist, an architect, a rally car driver, a magazine editor, a movie director, and Nancy Spain, who can best be described as a size large personality.

Spain is the only one I had heard of before, and all of the women (and the author) are British which means Her Brilliant Career gives its readers a glimpse of post-WWII life and cultural mores in Britain--another perk for me because I haven't read much about the era between the Blitz and the Swinging Sixties. Two other fun features of the book are its subversive novels list and select bibliography--I always love a book that increases my To-Be-Read pile. ( )