Useful Toil is a collection of autobiographies of working people, edited by John Burnett. There are narratives, diary extracts or interview transcripts from twenty seven individuals, whose working lives spanned the period 1820-1920. These include both men and women, labourers, domestic servants and skilled workers. One is Winifred Foley, whose books about life in the Forest of Dean are a delight. Although all are working people, they come from a range of social and geographical backgrounds, from Lancashire cotton weavers and workhouse inmates to professor’s sons. These first-hand accounts of the lives of miners, scullery maids, shop assistants and cabinet makers, to name but a few, are invaluable. There are also short biographies about each of the contributors. Burnett provides lengthy introductions to each of his three sections, which provide useful context for the specific memoirs. Here we learn more about wages, working conditions, industrial developments and the manage changes of the Victorian period.