Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War by Virginia Nicholson

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"Only one out of 10 of you girls can ever hope to marry," the headmistress of Bournemouth Girls' High School told her sixth form in 1917. She was right. The generation of men killed in the First World War left an equal number of women, bereaved alone and, often, loathed ("The superfluous women are a disaster to the human race," said the Daily Mail in 1921). Virginia Nicholson's humane mass portrait examines how some struggled and thrived while the majority suffered and wept. Other people's children were a common solace, likewise pets — there's great testimony from Angela du Maurier about her Pekinese, Wendy Pansy Posy Lollypop Stone- Martin. Sadder are the excerpts of letters to Marie Stopes from thousands of sex-starved spinsters. Her suggestion? Try knitting.