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TODAY WE ARE BACK WITH ANNA……for those of you just joining us, Anna is the protagonist from my soon to be published novel The Blue Pendant.
A 1912 typing pool, which I surmise, would not be dissimilar to a class of young ladies in Mrs. Wordsworth’s Secretarial School for Young Ladies
Anna was born in 1894 and grew up in a middle class British family. Her father, an accountant, provided well for his family. They lived in a modest house in Rugby, Warwickshire England and had two servants; a cook and a maid. The girls, Anna and her older sister Lou, had the privilege of staying in school until they turned six-teen. In general, education was not considered important for girls; a girl from a poor family would be lucky to stay in school until she was thirteen. Daughters from upper class and some upper middle class families would be tutored at home and sometimes be sent to finishing school before coming out as a debutante spend, waiting for a suitable husband. Daughters of middle class families, lower on the middle class scale, (‘gotta love the Brits class system’) would be expected to take up a respectable occupation between school and marriage, such as governess, school teacher, nurse, service in a large house, or secretary.
Lou went into service but Anna’s aversion to anything domestic lead her to secretarial work. Instead of serving a secretarial apprenticeship, her father paid for her to attend, Mrs. Wordsworth’s Secretarial School for Young Ladies. The preface of the owner’s name and title, ‘Mrs. Wordsworth’, gave the school a note of propriety and the term, ‘for young ladies’, indicated the school’s sensibilities towards making typewriting and shorthand, a suitable vocation for gentile young ladies.
1912 typewriter similar to the typewriter Anna would use.
Anna’s lessons, over and above typewriting and shorthand, would include; how to dress appropriately, deportment, manners and etiquette. There would be extensive lessons on how to obey and answer to her male superiors. And yes, that would include making tea, coffee and being a general dogs-body. Something any executive assistant would cringe at today. But by 1912 standards Anna was privileged to attend such a school. A privilege that was not offered to her sister. Father made no secret of favoring Anna. The favoritism was already a bone of contention between sisters, causing friction and sarcasm, which we see develop in the early parts of the novel and change, only sometimes for the better, as the sisters grew older.
Q. Which blue pendant for the cover? See Cover Story April 18, 2015 A. It is certain that the pendant will hang on a black velvet ribbon and it is currently, a tie between, pendant #2 and #3. I’ll keep you posted.
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