British women were inundated during the war with posters, leaflets, and films advising them to “Make Do and Mend” and save scarce resources by patching up existing clothes. None of the instructional aids were fancier than Richard Massingham’s In Which We Live, featuring a commentary spoken mostly by a gentleman’s suit, recalling twelve or so years of life with its sometimes messy owner, John. At the end, faced with scissors and rebirth, the suit quotes Shakespeare: “To sleep, perchance to dream….” Other countries in the war faced material shortages; only Britain, and perhaps only Massingham, would have used such whimsical humour to get the message across.

Geoff Brown