Edith deduced that the essential elements to the perfect female image were a good haircut and make-up, smart clothes, decent shoes and handbag, a trim figure, and a posh voice with no hint of a Morley accent. Though the women she emulated took for granted their stylish haircuts and expensive clothes, undoubtedly paid for by their well-heeled husbands, Edith had acquired her luxuries the hard way. Over the years, scrimping, saving and buying wisely, always with a good eye for detail, Edith’s wardrobe grew. Now consisting of one smart pair of heeled brogues, one crêpe summer frock, a well-cut coat, a sage-green twinset, a tweed skirt, and her pride and joy, a leather handbag. Knowing that if she left her precious clothes at home, her mother would pawn them for drink or, worse, burn them in a fit of rage, cautious Edith hid her precious wardrobe in her work locker, in fact, her two work lockers, one of which she had slyly claimed when a fellow nurse left.

To complete the transformation, it was essential that Edith changed her voice, affecting posher tones and dropping her Northern accent; she worked hard to sound like the women she nursed and worked alongside. Knowing she would be mocked if she ever spoke anything other than rough Northern in front of her family, Edith became adept at switching between the two. Confident that she was no longer the poor gauche outsider, Edith was able to mix more easily with her colleagues, and, as time went by and she became more established, she was regularly invited to the staff drinks events and retirement parties.

When these precious invitations arrived, the first thing that Edith did was to organize an overnight stay at the nurses’ dorm, where she would have loved to have lived permanently but simply couldn’t afford to. On these special occasions she revelled in the luxury of solitude, without her mother breathing down her neck about wasting hot water or occupying the outdoor privy for too long. Of course, Edith had to pay for the accommodation, but, oh, it was worth every penny. The thrill of taking a bath in private instead of in front of the fire, of taking her time applying her make-up, then slipping into a new dress that she might have saved a whole year to buy, was worth any amount of money as far as Edith was concerned.