WOMEN, POLITICS AND WELFARE
The Papers of Nancy Astor, 1879-1964, from Reading University Library

Part 1: Autobiography, Political Diaries, Speeches, Articles and Newscuttings

A true net-worker, Nancy Astor relished the opportunity to put people together - acting as a catalyst for action.

George Bernard Shaw, with whom she visited the Soviet Union in 1931, was a regular visitor to the family home at Cliveden, as were Sean OCasey, Sir John Simon, Neville Chamberlain, Lord Halifax and Anthony Eden. Despite allegations of pro-Nazism, the papers show that Nancy Astor was staunchly anti-Nazi. The Second Foreign Office (as Cliveden became known) exerted a major influence on foreign affairs from 1931 onwards (and it was at Cliveden that Christine Keeler met John Profumo by the swimming pool in 1963).

"One of the penalties of public life is that the line, between one's private and one's public life is blurred... legends arise about public figures which have little foundation in fact. The legend which has most distressed myself and my husband is that associated with the so-called Cliveden Set. According to this legend, my husband and myself and our friends are somehow or other regarded as conspirators ... according to the highly-coloured accounts, the Chancelleries of Europe are influenced by our wishes. A whisper at Cliveden causes Legations to tremble and Embassies to rock.... What Elstree-Hollywood nonsense it all is! ... I wish those people who believed in the legend of the Cliveden Set could come to Cliveden and see the Visitors' Book. They would get their eyes opened. They would see the kind of people whom we like and in whom we are interested.

They would find to their surprise that names of obscure social workers who are in need of rest and refreshment occur more frequently than the better-known names of politicians & statesmen."
Draft for Chapter XI of Autobiography

Part 1 makes it possible to examine and assess Nancy Astor's full and interesting life. It includes her unpublished manuscript autobiography, political diaries, notes for speeches, articles and her volumes of newscuttings. It will be of interest to those studying Gender and Politics, Modern History, the Welfare State, Diplomacy and Anglo-American Relations.

In the following extracts she gives her thoughts on the training of women in domestic work and the setting up of juvenile unemployment centres and on the question of insurance:

"It may be asked why train them? Why not take them straight into your houses? Everyone ought to know that some of these girls have gone straight from school into the factories where they were a national asset but the minute the War was over the State dispensed with their services and it was suggested that they should go into domestic service. Many of them had not the slightest idea as to how things should be done...."
March,1923 Political Diaries

"...something is wrong about insurance and I do not think it is a good thing for the House of Commons to say that there is nothing wrong and that the doctors are all right..."
April,1930 Political Diaries