Nella Last

Nella Last was a Cumbrian housewife with a talent for writing who chronicled her life for the social research organisation, Mass Observation. Many other Mass Observation diaries, now held in the Mass Observation Archive at the University of Sussex, ended with the conclusion of World War II. Nella, however, kept sending in her diaries to the Mass Observation office in London and continued writing until 1966 (she later died, in 1968). Her diary, consisting of around 12 million words, is one of the longest in the English language. A first volume of her diary, Nella Last's War, was published in 1981 and was turned into a successful TV film adaptation (Housewife, 49) by the actress and comedian Victoria Wood in 2006. The book is available in two editions, the original 1981 print as well as a refurbished edition released in 2006, around the time when the TV film was first broadcast and interest in the diaries sharply increased, the film being subsequently released onto DVD.