The pendulum years: Britain and the sixties

by Bernard Levin

Levin, Bernard. The Pendulum Years - Britain and the Sixties. First Edition. London, Jonathan Cape, 1970. 15 x 22 cm. 420 pages. Original Hardcover in original dustjacket (the dustjcaket in special Brodart-Cover). Very good condition with minor signs of external wear. Henry Bernard Levin CBE (19 August 1928 – 7 August 2004) was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by The Times as the most famous journalist of his day. The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital and went on to the London School of Economics, graduating in 1952. After a short spell in a lowly job at the BBC selecting press cuttings for use in programmes, he secured a post as a junior member of the editorial staff of a weekly periodical, Truth, in 1953. Levin reviewed television for The Manchester Guardian and wrote a weekly political column in The Spectator noted for its irreverence and influence on modern parliamentary sketches. During the 1960s he wrote five columns a week for The Daily Mail on any subject that he chose. After a disagreement with the proprietor of the paper over attempted censorship of his column in 1970, Levin moved to The Times where, with one break of just over a year in 1981–82, he remained as resident columnist until his retirement, covering a wide range of topics, both serious and comic. Levin became a well-known broadcaster, first on the weekly satirical television show That Was The Week That Was in the early 1960s, then as a panellist on a musical quiz, Face the Music, and finally in three series of travel programmes in the 1980s. He began to write books in the 1970s, publishing 17 between 1970 and 1998. From the early 1990s, Levin developed Alzheimer's disease, which eventually forced him to give up his regular column in 1997, and to stop writing altogether not long afterwards. (Wikipedia)

Genres: History, British Literature

451 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 1970

About the author

Henry Bernard Levin, CBE (London School of Economics, 1952) was described by the London daily The Times as "the most famous journalist of his day". As political correspondent of The Spectator under the pseudonym "Taper", he became "the father of the modern parliamentary sketch," as The Guardian's Simon Hoggart put it. He went on to work as the drama critic for The Daily Express and later The Daily Mail, and appeared regularly on the satirical BBC programme, That Was The Week That Was. He joined The Times as a columnist in 1970, almost immediately provoking controversy and lawsuits, and left when the paper was taken over by Rupert Murdoch.

Reviews

[Lysergius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting review of the major trends of the sixties by one of the TW3 team.

Another read through this and a feeling of surprise that it has not aged. the essays are as fresh as they were when they were first published in 1970. Interesting the pendulum referred to in the title in the ambivalence of the sixties, trying to look forward while looking back simultaneously.

His review of the Profumo Affair is still one of the best accounts I have read, his characterisation of some of the sixties characters, Tariq Ali, and David Frost for example are spot on, and his appreciation of the nature of the changes taking place is profound.

The language crackles with pyrotechnics and wit, and his characterisation of himself on TW3 is perfect. I think he must have enjoyed working on it, I know I enjoyed watching it.

[Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book to read and reread. It took me back to my earlier years