Linda McCullough Thew (''nee'' Summers, 13 April 1918 – 25 December 2013) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

author. She wrote short stories and books and produced programs for television and radio. She is most noted for her memoir of life in the town of Ashington, ''The Pit Village and the Store'', which was later dramatized for British television.

Biography

McCullough Thew was born in

Ashington Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the ...

. She left school at 14 to work in the village store in Ashington,

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

(recounted in ''The Pit Village and the Store''). It was in the 1930s when she started and she was the first woman to work as an assistant at that

co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

store. In 1942, she joined the

ATS ATS or Ats may refer to: Businesses * ATS Wheels, or ''Auto Technisches Spezialzubehör'', a German wheel manufacturer and sponsor of a Formula One racing team * ATS Automation Tooling Systems, an Ontario, Canada-based factory automation company ...

where she worked on anti-aircraft

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

. She transferred to the Army Education Corps and subsequently took a teachers' training course in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

. McCullough Thew "pioneered sex education in schools" and produced programs for television and radio about human relationships in the mid-1960s. After a career in teaching she became a full-time writer. ''The Pit Village and the Store'' was dramatized by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

and broadcast in 1987. McCullough Thew died at East Riding Residential Care Home in

Morpeth Morpeth may refer to: *Morpeth, New South Wales, Australia ** Electoral district of Morpeth, a former electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in New South Wales * Morpeth, Ontario, Canada * Morpeth, Northumberland, England, UK ** Morpeth (UK ...

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

, 2013. Items that she had collected from her past, including

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

memorabilia A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...

, were donated to the Woodhorn Museum.

Work

McCullough Thew's autobiographical narrative about the Ashington Co-operative Society was considered a notable study of the

co-operative movement The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement bega ...

in England by Nicole Robertson. '' Labour History'' called ''The Pit Village and the Store'' an "affectionate memoir of life in Ashington."

Publications

* ''The Pit Village and the Store: Portrait of a Mining Past'' Pluto Press (31 October 1985) * ''From Store to War'' Pluto Press (Nov 1987) * ''A Tune for Bears to Dance to'' Bridge Studios (Oct 1992) * ''Living My Life, Vol. 2''

Emma Goldman Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the ...

(ed. Linda McCullough Thew), 1988,

References

2013 deaths Auxiliary Territorial Service soldiers English women writers People from Ashington 1918 births 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English writers {{england-writer-stub