Monday 1 October 2012

Magpie Monday - How to be beautiful

Just a quick Magpie Monday post to show a few books I've found recently. This Warne's Pleasure Book for Girls was published in 1933 and makes a nice addition to my collection. It was £3.00 from a charity bookshop in the Lake District.


What's that Lassie? Gertrude's fallen down an abandoned well?

The stories include 'The Unlucky Hockey Stick', 'Barbara's Speed Boat' and 'The Queer one of the Family' and suggest the usual mix of school shenanigans, high drama and unintentional hilarity.

I also found this 1988 Bunty annual for 40p, which contains a rather alarming story about a group of school boys attempting to obtain their (foxy) matron's vital statistics so they can buy her a new dress. When they're not hiding in her wardrobe, they're 'accidentally' bumping into her so that someone can sneak up on her with a tape measure! It's all a bit Benny Hill.


[click to enlarge pictures]


Finally a few extracts from a book I found at a carboot sale. It's called 'What Every Woman Should Know', and is a collection of clippings from the Daily Mail of the 1930s. 

Liz Jones: how to look snooty


There are plenty of handy household hints -  "sour milk makes a good cleaner for gilt picture frames" - recipes, and indepth analysis of the latest fashions; "blouse jackets are trumps for Autumn". I think my favourite part is the beauty pages though - woe betide the fashionable 30s woman who attempted to wear the latest 'tip-tilted hats' with 'the least suspcicion of a double chin' or with 'sagging cheek muscles'. Charming phrases such as 'bingo wings' and 'cankles' had yet to be invented, but it seems there was no shortage of imaginary flaws to focus on. Do you know anyone who suffers with "that fleshy lump at the back of the neck that is so disfiguring"? If contorting yourself between two mirrors proves that you are indeed afflicted - don't worry. 'It can be eradicated by the right exercise'.


If your face is OK but your figure lets you down - why not take up ice skating this winter? Personally I don't know anyone who puts on 8lbs in the summer which they then  lose in the winter - salad vs stew, I don't think so - but if this is your problem you'll be pleased to know that 'as you skate the flesh is actually massaged away between hips and ribs'.


Sadly I don't have much time for daily skating - am I doomed to be fat?


Yes.

Lakota x


Sharing this post with Liz at Magpie Monday and Thrift Share Monday
Don't forget it's Ta-dah! Tuesday here tomorrow.

35 comments:

  1. I love books like these Lakota, they are so hilarious, it's not funny!

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  2. Hhhhm I always knew there wasa good reason to spend all my time cleaning ... its slimming (not if you reward yourself with a cuppa and some biscuits afterwards!)
    Catherine

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  3. i skate, i have yet to see the flesh actually being massaged away between hips and ribs!
    looking forward to hereing all about the queer one!

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  4. Since my sour milk goes into sticky gingerbread rather than cleaning my gilt picture frames, I'd better go do some vigorous housework to burn off the pounds. Oh wait, I can't, I've already cricked my neck tackling my saggy chin and deformed neck. The fat and the dust will just have to stay where they are.

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  5. Must go and do a bit of exercise (hoovering, mopping the floor, digging the garden) down at the 'gym'.
    Love from Mum
    xx
    PS My neck seems OK.

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  6. Great post, love these books! hope you have a happy week sweetie

    Bee happy x

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  7. hilarious - that matron looks the same age as the boys, which is even odder. I love the girl up the tree, such a gorgeous simple print, though your caption will render it amusing for always. I want to know about the Queer one in the family. The mind boggles when thinking about how the flesh could be massaged away by ice skating - more like the flesh will turn blue and purple from the cold and constant falling on your arse

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  8. great books!
    If they did buy Matron a dress, she'd probably find herself in hot water [if not dismissed] for accepting gifts from pupils

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  9. Lakota--cool stuff!!! I love old books and magazines!!
    Ice skating would improve my figure--if wearing casts on all of my limbs is an improvement!!
    Magpie monday--what a cool idea!! Because I'm nothing if not a magpie!

    look....shiny!!

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  10. These are one great old gems! It looks like its always been about our looks hasn't it:)

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  11. I used to love Bunty. I'm off to work on my double chin/neck fat this instant!

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  12. Fantastic book Lakota, especially the Daily mail one. Looks really interesting x

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  13. I loved Bunty I love it Thank you for this xxx

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  14. I've decided I'm going to do the housework on skates from now on, I'll either be thin as a rake or being fed via a tube, in any case it will have worked, there's much to be said for old wisdom.

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  15. I love the beauty tips in old books! It's nice to know the editors of old still did their level best to make women feel insecure about their looks way back then, too! x

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  16. Hilarious! So The Daily Mail's aim has always been to make women feel a bit shit about themselves! x

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  17. Oh brilliant. I love that gals used to get their pleasure by letting dogs look up their skirts.

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  18. Loving the Bunty book, it's always lovely to bring home a book like this xxx

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  19. Plus ca change - women being lectured on beauty, weight and housework, sounds horribly familiar...
    Love the pictures and extracts, Lakota, old books are a goldmine for laughs. I have a housekeeping manual from the 1930s with recipes to make you gag, and recommendations for scrubbing your nipples with a stiff brush while pregnant to prepare yourself for the rigours of breast feeding. I don't know which would be worse torture, that or the calves foot jelly! xxxx

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  20. Love those books!
    Liz @ Shortbread & Ginger

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  21. I have that 1930s book too, I love the photos of the glamorous 30s ladies in it. X

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  22. Me too, I love the 30 s, and secretly strive to be like one of these so well groomed ladies! I'd love to read about the Unlucky Hockey Stick; my own one was quite the opposite, it managed to score a fair amount of goals from my position as Right Inner!

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  23. I do love those old health & beauty tips :)

    Off to check the back of my neck for fat!!

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  24. I remember Bunty! So brilliant! Love those tips- hee hee, a typically funny Lakota post!

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  25. I absolutely love vintage and antiquarian books and i have shelves full of them from the 1800's onwards. They are just so charmingly written and innocent with so many beautiful illustrations. I think the one with the lady on the front looks the best.
    Aqeela xx

    (i participated in the magpie monday linky too)

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  26. So much to love in this post - but the boys trying to get their foxy matrons measurements is a winner:)

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  27. Brilliant stuff, lakota.
    Are we doing any swapping for Christmas this year???
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

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  28. These look fantastic.I used to read Bunty when I was younger - makes me feel really old now!

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  29. I expect she was meeting the governors to explain why a thirteen year old schoolgirl was masquerading as a matron in a boys' school. A pleasure book for girls would have an entirely different content these days

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  30. amazing book finds....really made me smile, seeing your purchases and secretly wish I'd found them myself...they look like blumming good reads in my book!!

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  31. Books from that era are always good for a laugh, and the occasional useful bit of information. I've gained a few pounds this last year; it must be because I haven't been doing enough housework.

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  32. 'The queer one of the family' - ha ha ha, you couldn't make this up!

    I used to read Bunty when I was little (guess I've always been old-fashioned). Looking back it was probably more useful than Care Bears magazine (which I also read).

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  33. I've started getting into vintage books lately, and I just love the cover illustrations on the Pleasure Book. Also--wow, just wow to all those articles from What Every Woman Should Know!
    We're hosting our first thrifty link-up on our blog, and we would love it if you would join in! Check it out here: The Nifty Thrifty

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  34. Oh Lakota, you and I are both doomed if housework is the answer! (I can't believe I used to enjoy it... but that was when we lived in an amazing flat, not a massive house with the biggest slob of a teen you've ever met! Help me, I'm drowning... send Lassie to rescue me!) I love those crazy old books and have a few. "Useful Information for Every Household" c1944, filled with newspaper clippings on helpful hints from the 40s & 50s. "1003 Household Hints and Work Savers" C1947. I know I have ones on beauty too, but that would require wading through the muck, and I may not make it out in 30 mins to take the Punk Glam Princess (aka the slob) to the doctor (you'd have to send Lassie again!) XXX

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