Mass Observation was set up in the 1930s. It persuaded people to keep diaries of their thoughts and actions and send these to be archived. It was a way of judging public opinion before opinion polls. This book takes the mass observation diaries of several people from the end of WW2 through to 1948. It provides a fascinating - and very readable - insight into the way people were thinking at the crucial period in Britain's history. Of course we don't know if this small sample is typical of everyone, but it chronicles the impact of continuing - and increasing - rationing, of political change, of the hardships of peace and how people reacted to them. The book sat on my shelf for a while before I opened it, but I have to say that once I started it I couldn't put it down. A fascinating insight into the early post-war period.