A Bridport author is putting right people's stereotypical views of secretaries in the 1970s.

Sarah Shaw, who was a secretary from 1970 to 1979, has published her second book, 'Short Skirts and Shorthand: Secretaries in the 1970s'.

In 1971, around 750,000 British women were employed as secretaries and typists, working in a role that had changed little in nearly a century. But by the end of the decade this was changing forever.

Drawing on personal accounts from more than 60 former secretaries, 'Short Skirts and Shorthand' describes the working life of secretaries, from personal assistants in boardroom suites to copyists in the typing pool, comparing them with how they were depicted in popular media and by feminists if the time.

What emerges is a picture that is much more revealing, authentic and amusing than anything we have been led to believe.

Sarah said: "After my first book, 'The Secret Diary of a 1970s' Secretary' - my actual diary for 1971 - was published, a couple of readers said they were glad someone had written a book about secretaries - which wasn't really the case, it was simply that I had been a secretary that year.

"But I started looking at what was out there about 1970s' secretaries - and I was horrified.

"It was all wrong - cheeky dolly birds sitting on the boss' knee and simpering Miss Moneypennys in suits and helmet hair. Very little as I remembered it.

"So, I appealed to former secretaries to send me their reminiscences, which they did.

"The result was a kind of 'everything you thought you knew about secretaries is wrong'. So, I wrote the book."

She says it is a must read for former secretaries, their bosses and for anyone interested in social or women's history.

It is available from amazon.