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Frostquake: How the Frozen Winter of 1962 Changed Britain Forever
On Boxing Day 1962, when Juliet Nicolson was eight years old, the snow began to fall. It did not stop for ten weeks. The drifts in East Sussex reached twenty-three feet. In London, milkmen made deliveries on skis. On Dartmoor 2,000 ponies were buried in the snow, and starving foxes ate sheep alive.
It wasn't just the weather that was bad. The threat of nuclear war had reached its terrifying height with the recent Cuban Missile Crisis. Unemployment was on the rise, de Gaulle was blocking Britain from joining the European Economic Community, Winston Churchill, still the symbol of Great Britishness, was fading. These shadows hung over a country paralysed by frozen heating oil, burst pipes and power cuts.
And yet underneath the frozen surface, new life was beginning to stir. A new breed of satirists threatened the complacent decadence of the British establishment. A game-changing band from Liverpool topped the charts, becoming the ultimate symbol of an exuberant youthquake. Scandals such as the Profumo Affair exposed racial and sexual prejudice. When the thaw came, ten weeks of extraordinary weather had acted as a catalyst between two distinct eras.
From poets to pop stars, shopkeepers to schoolchildren, and her own family's experiences, Juliet Nicolson traces the hardship of that frozen winter and the emancipation that followed. That spring, new life was unleashed, along with freedoms we take for granted today.
It wasn't just the weather that was bad. The threat of nuclear war had reached its terrifying height with the recent Cuban Missile Crisis. Unemployment was on the rise, de Gaulle was blocking Britain from joining the European Economic Community, Winston Churchill, still the symbol of Great Britishness, was fading. These shadows hung over a country paralysed by frozen heating oil, burst pipes and power cuts.
And yet underneath the frozen surface, new life was beginning to stir. A new breed of satirists threatened the complacent decadence of the British establishment. A game-changing band from Liverpool topped the charts, becoming the ultimate symbol of an exuberant youthquake. Scandals such as the Profumo Affair exposed racial and sexual prejudice. When the thaw came, ten weeks of extraordinary weather had acted as a catalyst between two distinct eras.
From poets to pop stars, shopkeepers to schoolchildren, and her own family's experiences, Juliet Nicolson traces the hardship of that frozen winter and the emancipation that followed. That spring, new life was unleashed, along with freedoms we take for granted today.
356 pages, Paperback
First published February 4, 2021
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About the author
Juliet Nicolson
10 books124 followersJuliet Nicolson is the author of 'The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm' and 'The Great Silence: Britain From the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age.' She read English at Oxford University and has worked in publishing in both the UK and the United States. She has two daughters, and lives with her husband in Sussex.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
March 5, 2021
I have enjoyed all the books I have read by Juliet Nicolson so far and I am pleased to say that this is no exception. It centres around the winter of 1962-63, when snow started falling on Boxing Day, 1962, and continued falling for ten weeks. Although I was not born then, my brother was born in March, 1963, and so it was a winter my mother recalled with clarity.
In 1962, a new decade was underway, but Post-War Britain still seemed to be ensnared in the fifties. Fog, a lack of optimism, the threat of the Cold War and a still censorious Auntie Beeb, meant that things were going along much as always. By the time the snow had stopped, society would have shifted. The Beatles, who released their first single in 1962, would explode into popularity, Private Eye and 'That Was the Week That Was,' would poke fun at previously off-topic subjects, and attitudes would change.
Juliet Nicolson manages to combine a personal memoir, with a social history, which is extremely readable and enjoyable. From JFK, through Profumo and Christne Keeler, Mary Quant, Sylvia Plath, Macmillan, Tara Browne and others, she writes of social, and class, barriers being broken down. Although she discusses sport, politics, ballet and changing attitudes, such as tolerance towards homosexuality, it is music which is central to her story.
Before 1963, regional accents were hardly heard on the BBC and possibly only there as a figure of fun (the 'O'ill give it foive' of 'Juke Box Jury') but the Beatles would change all that and much more. As they trundled in their van around the snow covered roads, roadie Neil Aspinall struggling to see through the windscreen, their irreverent humour, original music, and openly Liverpudlian accents, would charm a nation. Meanwhile, waiting in the wings were Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, poised to follow them, with Bob Dylan visiting London for the first time, and older acts, such as Helen Shapiro (even if she was very young) getting ready to exit the stage. Music was about to change from American cover versions to home grown talent and that talent would explode with the melting of the snow. A wonderful read - social history at its best.
In 1962, a new decade was underway, but Post-War Britain still seemed to be ensnared in the fifties. Fog, a lack of optimism, the threat of the Cold War and a still censorious Auntie Beeb, meant that things were going along much as always. By the time the snow had stopped, society would have shifted. The Beatles, who released their first single in 1962, would explode into popularity, Private Eye and 'That Was the Week That Was,' would poke fun at previously off-topic subjects, and attitudes would change.
Juliet Nicolson manages to combine a personal memoir, with a social history, which is extremely readable and enjoyable. From JFK, through Profumo and Christne Keeler, Mary Quant, Sylvia Plath, Macmillan, Tara Browne and others, she writes of social, and class, barriers being broken down. Although she discusses sport, politics, ballet and changing attitudes, such as tolerance towards homosexuality, it is music which is central to her story.
Before 1963, regional accents were hardly heard on the BBC and possibly only there as a figure of fun (the 'O'ill give it foive' of 'Juke Box Jury') but the Beatles would change all that and much more. As they trundled in their van around the snow covered roads, roadie Neil Aspinall struggling to see through the windscreen, their irreverent humour, original music, and openly Liverpudlian accents, would charm a nation. Meanwhile, waiting in the wings were Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, poised to follow them, with Bob Dylan visiting London for the first time, and older acts, such as Helen Shapiro (even if she was very young) getting ready to exit the stage. Music was about to change from American cover versions to home grown talent and that talent would explode with the melting of the snow. A wonderful read - social history at its best.
March 13, 2021
I found this book disappointing. As social history it seems superficial: I note that Peter Hennessy encouraged her to write it, which is puzzling since his own "Winds of Change" covers the period rather more thoroughly. The footnotes indicate that she read some books and talked to a random selection of people about their memories but there are many phrases in quotation marks for which no source is cited and I began to find that irritating. In the middle of two rather turgid chapters about the sad demise of Sylvia Plath we find an irrelevant and mawkish paragraph about Nicolson waking up on the anniversary of Plath's death and enjoying the sunrise.
I don't agree with the author's apparent thesis that the bad winter precipitated societal change: the weather had nothing to do with it. But I may have misunderstood, as this idea is only clearly expressed in the book's lengthy subtitle. As someone a little older than Nicolson, with my own memories of the period, I may not be a member of the target market: a millennial could perhaps find it very informative. But there are much better books about the Beatles, the Profumo affair and Sylvia Plath.
This book really needed a good editor to get to grips with the structure, to iron out the repetition and cut the closing paragraphs. And there are so many typos!
I don't agree with the author's apparent thesis that the bad winter precipitated societal change: the weather had nothing to do with it. But I may have misunderstood, as this idea is only clearly expressed in the book's lengthy subtitle. As someone a little older than Nicolson, with my own memories of the period, I may not be a member of the target market: a millennial could perhaps find it very informative. But there are much better books about the Beatles, the Profumo affair and Sylvia Plath.
This book really needed a good editor to get to grips with the structure, to iron out the repetition and cut the closing paragraphs. And there are so many typos!
February 14, 2021
My review is on my website www.bookread2day.wordpress.com
With the snow we have just had during February 2021 this is a good time to read FrostQuake. Once the snow has gone, if you was born in 1962 or 1963 this would make a perfect reading choice , you may have been a toddler or having to go school during the freezing snow.
During the 10 weeks of snow I was born 22nd December 1962, and my partner was born 10th May 1963.
Those who lived through the 10 weeks of freezing snow blizzards will never forget it. The bitter winter closed down life in Britain, just like our lockdown for Covid is doing today.
FrostQuake was a special book that I was desperate to read as I was born in 1962, 4 days before the snow started falling on Boxing Day.
My mother was still in hospital in London with me at that time on Boxing Day with the Salvation Army singing Christmas carols in the hospital.
But by Boxing Day the snow started falling. When my mother finally left hospital it was freezing and snowing.
I came out of hospital and a few days later I was having breathing problems, my dad had to take me to hospital in the middle of the night. His car with blankets of snow, what made it worse is that my dad couldn’t get his car going, but thankful he managed to. When I was taken to a hospital a white nurse said the hospital can’t do anything for me, and that my dad must take me to another hospital, now for those who call Black people names should be ashamed of themselves, as for me I’m lucky to be alive as it was a black nurse that told that white nurse I will be dead by the time I arrive at another hospital. Thankful this black nurse took hold of me and said I will look after her myself. Thank you so much to that black nurse wherever you are I’m very thankful you saved my life.
I very thankful to Juliet Nicolson for writing a book about the freezing winter of 1962 – 1863 as this was very educational for me finding out what the snow was like when I was a just a few days old, and what other people had to go through, Nurses, farmers, shopkeepers, schoolchildren, milkman, postmen, the men who collected bins, even Joanna Lumley, and the author of The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath tell their stories of what it was like for them in the freezing conditions.
With the snow we have just had during February 2021 this is a good time to read FrostQuake. Once the snow has gone, if you was born in 1962 or 1963 this would make a perfect reading choice , you may have been a toddler or having to go school during the freezing snow.
During the 10 weeks of snow I was born 22nd December 1962, and my partner was born 10th May 1963.
Those who lived through the 10 weeks of freezing snow blizzards will never forget it. The bitter winter closed down life in Britain, just like our lockdown for Covid is doing today.
FrostQuake was a special book that I was desperate to read as I was born in 1962, 4 days before the snow started falling on Boxing Day.
My mother was still in hospital in London with me at that time on Boxing Day with the Salvation Army singing Christmas carols in the hospital.
But by Boxing Day the snow started falling. When my mother finally left hospital it was freezing and snowing.
I came out of hospital and a few days later I was having breathing problems, my dad had to take me to hospital in the middle of the night. His car with blankets of snow, what made it worse is that my dad couldn’t get his car going, but thankful he managed to. When I was taken to a hospital a white nurse said the hospital can’t do anything for me, and that my dad must take me to another hospital, now for those who call Black people names should be ashamed of themselves, as for me I’m lucky to be alive as it was a black nurse that told that white nurse I will be dead by the time I arrive at another hospital. Thankful this black nurse took hold of me and said I will look after her myself. Thank you so much to that black nurse wherever you are I’m very thankful you saved my life.
I very thankful to Juliet Nicolson for writing a book about the freezing winter of 1962 – 1863 as this was very educational for me finding out what the snow was like when I was a just a few days old, and what other people had to go through, Nurses, farmers, shopkeepers, schoolchildren, milkman, postmen, the men who collected bins, even Joanna Lumley, and the author of The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath tell their stories of what it was like for them in the freezing conditions.
September 16, 2022
I was eight in the winter of 1962-3 and I remember it well. I thought this would be a social and cultural history of that winter and looked forward to being reminded of how things were.
How wrong can you be? I finished it wondering what this book was for. A mishmash of personal memoir, social history, political history, discussion of high society scandals that are already well known. In the first few chapters there's a superficial gallop through racism, homophobia, fashion, pop music, and the friendship between Macmillan and JFK. Plus some name-dropping since she happens to be the granddaughter of Vita Sackville-West and lived at Sissinghurst for some of this time (oddly she mentions Vita's "passionate affair" but doesn't name drop who it was with (Virginia Woolf).
For some reason she circles round again and again to the Beatles, often repeating things she's already said. There are two chapters devoted to Sylvia Plath's suicide. Why? Quite often there's a quote or anecdote from some random person who makes no further appearance. And the anecdotes are often pointless, e.g. Laurence Olivier making a kind remark to the young Eileen Atkins in her dressing room during a play they are both in. She strains to tie together disparate topics. I did not expect to read the sentences "Youth was in the ascendant and with approaching spring talk of sex was filling the air. Sex remained an uncomfortable topic for Harold Macmillan."
She seems sometimes to be going beyond metaphor and claiming that the big freeze and thaw was the cause of social change in the 1960s. "The failure to tell the truth, to hide behind the privileged protection afforded the ruling class, had prevailed at the beginning of the winter. As the ice cracked, lying could no longer be tolerated. The cat was out of the bag."
Most of the topics here are well known, treated superficially and have been written about more authoritatively by other people. I learned almost nothing new. She's almost the same age as me, but even the memoir parts felt distant because she lived such a privileged life (even if she did get her bottom pinched by John Profumo). I was left thinking how much better Alwyn Turner would have done this. Sadly, he doesn't seem to have written about the 60s.
How wrong can you be? I finished it wondering what this book was for. A mishmash of personal memoir, social history, political history, discussion of high society scandals that are already well known. In the first few chapters there's a superficial gallop through racism, homophobia, fashion, pop music, and the friendship between Macmillan and JFK. Plus some name-dropping since she happens to be the granddaughter of Vita Sackville-West and lived at Sissinghurst for some of this time (oddly she mentions Vita's "passionate affair" but doesn't name drop who it was with (Virginia Woolf).
For some reason she circles round again and again to the Beatles, often repeating things she's already said. There are two chapters devoted to Sylvia Plath's suicide. Why? Quite often there's a quote or anecdote from some random person who makes no further appearance. And the anecdotes are often pointless, e.g. Laurence Olivier making a kind remark to the young Eileen Atkins in her dressing room during a play they are both in. She strains to tie together disparate topics. I did not expect to read the sentences "Youth was in the ascendant and with approaching spring talk of sex was filling the air. Sex remained an uncomfortable topic for Harold Macmillan."
She seems sometimes to be going beyond metaphor and claiming that the big freeze and thaw was the cause of social change in the 1960s. "The failure to tell the truth, to hide behind the privileged protection afforded the ruling class, had prevailed at the beginning of the winter. As the ice cracked, lying could no longer be tolerated. The cat was out of the bag."
Most of the topics here are well known, treated superficially and have been written about more authoritatively by other people. I learned almost nothing new. She's almost the same age as me, but even the memoir parts felt distant because she lived such a privileged life (even if she did get her bottom pinched by John Profumo). I was left thinking how much better Alwyn Turner would have done this. Sadly, he doesn't seem to have written about the 60s.
May 28, 2021
Juliet Nicolson was eight during the winter of 1962-3; I was twelve. She draws an analogy between the frozen state of the U.K., or actually England (as most of the descriptions are set in the S.E. and London), and the hide-bound conventions of a political and social Establishment that was still almost Edwardian in its attitudes and conventions. As Spring approaches, the thaw arrives, and the changes that gathered pace during the Sixties are already in place.
That was the winter when the Beatles went from being popular in Liverpool to becoming a national sensation, and then spreading to world-wide fame. Newspapers and television started to seek freedom, with the arrival of ‘That was the week that was’ or TW3, as it was known, and the eruption of the Profumo scandal.
This book is obviously a big hit with the baby boomer generation, as all copies are on loan in our county library system, with reservations on the title as well. I wasn’t a very politically aware twelve year old - most of my knowledge of current affairs was drawn from the annual Giles cartoon volume that we always had at home. Of course I knew about the Beatles, but the Cuban missile crisis, the Profumo affair and Sylvia Plath’s death were all either carefully concealed from me or just didn’t enter my field of consciousness. It was my first winter at boarding school, on the notoriously cold North Foreland at Broadstairs in Kent. My main memories are being allowed out of school to see the frozen sea at Joss Bay, and being taken tobogganing by my older brother at Christmas, when a wild bird came and sat on my shoulder, it was so desperate for food.
However, I much enjoyed this read, and having visited Sissinghurst, family home of the Nicolsons, in the past also added to the enjoyment.
That was the winter when the Beatles went from being popular in Liverpool to becoming a national sensation, and then spreading to world-wide fame. Newspapers and television started to seek freedom, with the arrival of ‘That was the week that was’ or TW3, as it was known, and the eruption of the Profumo scandal.
This book is obviously a big hit with the baby boomer generation, as all copies are on loan in our county library system, with reservations on the title as well. I wasn’t a very politically aware twelve year old - most of my knowledge of current affairs was drawn from the annual Giles cartoon volume that we always had at home. Of course I knew about the Beatles, but the Cuban missile crisis, the Profumo affair and Sylvia Plath’s death were all either carefully concealed from me or just didn’t enter my field of consciousness. It was my first winter at boarding school, on the notoriously cold North Foreland at Broadstairs in Kent. My main memories are being allowed out of school to see the frozen sea at Joss Bay, and being taken tobogganing by my older brother at Christmas, when a wild bird came and sat on my shoulder, it was so desperate for food.
However, I much enjoyed this read, and having visited Sissinghurst, family home of the Nicolsons, in the past also added to the enjoyment.
April 18, 2021
An interesting look at a moment in time, but not, as the subtitle suggests, a moment that actually changed Britain. Certainly the Sixties were an important time of change, and Nicolson brings in a taste of the politics, the fashions, the music, the culture and above all the tensions between the old world order and the new youth-based culture that would increasingly challenge the status quo in the next decade.
This is a snapshot, not a systematic history, and Nicolson feels free to go off on tangents. Some I loved, such as the evocations of Sissinghurst, the great garden set in the remains of an Elizabethan manor that Nicolson's grandparents created, in its final years as a family home before it passed into the hands of the National Trust. Others I wasn't so keen on; I'm not a Beatles fan and didn't really need a potted history of the group. Others I liked but wasn't sure how relevant they were; compelling as Sylvia Plath's story is, how did it really relate to the period?
Still, the overall impression was of a portrait of a society that happened to be going through an exceptionally cold winter but that was also in the process of detaching itself from the post-war period and emerging into an age of flowering, one in which British talent made its mark on the world in a way it has probably not achieved since. A good topic for an audiobook listen.
This is a snapshot, not a systematic history, and Nicolson feels free to go off on tangents. Some I loved, such as the evocations of Sissinghurst, the great garden set in the remains of an Elizabethan manor that Nicolson's grandparents created, in its final years as a family home before it passed into the hands of the National Trust. Others I wasn't so keen on; I'm not a Beatles fan and didn't really need a potted history of the group. Others I liked but wasn't sure how relevant they were; compelling as Sylvia Plath's story is, how did it really relate to the period?
Still, the overall impression was of a portrait of a society that happened to be going through an exceptionally cold winter but that was also in the process of detaching itself from the post-war period and emerging into an age of flowering, one in which British talent made its mark on the world in a way it has probably not achieved since. A good topic for an audiobook listen.
July 14, 2021
täiesti loetav raamat, mis räägib... sellest, mis juhtus Suurbritannias (põhiliselt ikkagi Inglismaal) 1962. aasta talvel, aastake siia-sinna. põhiliselt oli jube külm, biitlid kogusid kuulsust, Mary Quant müüs miniseelikuid ja värvilisi sukkpükse, Sylvia Plath tappis end ära ja Profumo afäär (mis oli vist küll pikem ettevõtmine) jäi ka kuidagi otsapidi sisse.
kuidagi püüab autor seda kõike raamistada nii, et just selle talvega toimus tohutu murrang ja ühiskond polnud pärast kevadist sula enam sugugi see, igasugune rassism ja homofoobia ja muud vanad kombed hakkasid murenema, keskkonnateadlikkus kasvama ja mis kõik. ma seda seost küll eriti ei osta, üsna meelevaldne tundub. eks lihtsalt... viiekümnendad olid läbi ja kuuekümnendad käes ja elu tasapisi muutus nagu ta ikka muutub.
aga hästi kirjutatud ja ma hindasin isegi autori enda pereelu põhjalikke kirjeldusi, sest ta on ikkagi Vita Sackville-Westi lapselaps.
kuidagi püüab autor seda kõike raamistada nii, et just selle talvega toimus tohutu murrang ja ühiskond polnud pärast kevadist sula enam sugugi see, igasugune rassism ja homofoobia ja muud vanad kombed hakkasid murenema, keskkonnateadlikkus kasvama ja mis kõik. ma seda seost küll eriti ei osta, üsna meelevaldne tundub. eks lihtsalt... viiekümnendad olid läbi ja kuuekümnendad käes ja elu tasapisi muutus nagu ta ikka muutub.
aga hästi kirjutatud ja ma hindasin isegi autori enda pereelu põhjalikke kirjeldusi, sest ta on ikkagi Vita Sackville-Westi lapselaps.
July 5, 2022
Interesting in places but I’m not sure it met it’s brief about total change in society before and after the bad winter of 62/3. The book is well researched so if you were around then you should find it an enjoyable read. The author is the granddaughter of Harold Nicholson and Vita Sackville-West so spent some time at Sissinghurst and you get her personal reminiscences. You also get the reports of Dartmoor ponies being dug out etc. Some events interested her more so there is lots of detail - the Beatles rise to fame, the Profumo case, the death of Sylvia Plath. She talks about the general changes in tolerance and prejudice since then- sadly I don’t think we have made that much progress when you look at the latest legal changes in the US. although the book is centred in England. There’s also a lockdown parallel to be drawn- this time the weather caused it and the result is more social and communal!
March 23, 2022
The subtitle of 'Frostquake' and the publisher's blurb imply that the British Winter of 1962/63 was a metaphor. Before that Winter, Great Britain was a country frozen in its attitudes and beliefs emerging afterwards as an exciting and vibrant place in which to live.
Fine, except that the book doesn't do that. There is no examination of British society in the 1950s and the extensive changes wrought in the 1960s.
The book is a competent examination of events in the UK in the months before, during and after the Winter period. There is padding with rather too much about The Beatles
It is a competent read, but is a con as it doesn't achieve what it sets out to do.
Fine, except that the book doesn't do that. There is no examination of British society in the 1950s and the extensive changes wrought in the 1960s.
The book is a competent examination of events in the UK in the months before, during and after the Winter period. There is padding with rather too much about The Beatles
It is a competent read, but is a con as it doesn't achieve what it sets out to do.
April 23, 2021
Well great start, ok middle, but boy did we loose our way towards the end.
I found the personal recollections a bit hit and miss. Some rang true but others felt a little weak and names were dropped from a great height (Profumo and JNs bottom spring to mind).
Overall I enjoyed it and the social observations were good, if not original. It’s well trod territory after all.
The writing just lost its focus in the later chapters. I found it hard to follow the thread on occasion. ( The Sylvia Plath entry seemed particularly rambling).
However a recommended read.
I found the personal recollections a bit hit and miss. Some rang true but others felt a little weak and names were dropped from a great height (Profumo and JNs bottom spring to mind).
Overall I enjoyed it and the social observations were good, if not original. It’s well trod territory after all.
The writing just lost its focus in the later chapters. I found it hard to follow the thread on occasion. ( The Sylvia Plath entry seemed particularly rambling).
However a recommended read.
March 20, 2022
A good observation on the social as well as the physical climate at the start of the 1960's.
Nicolson covers everything and seems to have collected information from copious sources to narrate the frigid start to the 60's.
I think its funny how Nicolson waits for quite some time before dropping in to the text that Vita Sackville West was her grandma and she used to live at Sissinghurst!! Bizarre little delayed name drop!
Good conversational writing. The only thing is that the book felt a little too long at over 300 pages.
Nicolson covers everything and seems to have collected information from copious sources to narrate the frigid start to the 60's.
I think its funny how Nicolson waits for quite some time before dropping in to the text that Vita Sackville West was her grandma and she used to live at Sissinghurst!! Bizarre little delayed name drop!
Good conversational writing. The only thing is that the book felt a little too long at over 300 pages.
October 24, 2022
A curious book that falls between several stools without planting its entire bottom on any of them. Nicolson begins with an attempt to link a meteorological phenomenon that could have happened anywhere with a cultural shift that was coming in any case. Nicolson is a member of a famous literary family and this permeates the narrative- I note she has written elsewhere about her lineage as scions often do. I enjoyed it, but authors like David Kynaston have covered this more analytically. As the Scots legal system would say, not proven
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November 4, 2022I haven't really read this, but I returned it to the library a week ago so I should take it off my list. I picked it up on the basis of the front cover thinking it was going to be an indepth account of that terrible winter in 1962. But it's not really, or only incidentally. Nicolson is writing about all the social problems in Britain, and how one could see the changes coming at that time. Which is all well and good, but at the moment I have no major drive to read about that. I wanted chilly winters! Maybe I'll give it another go in the future.
May 14, 2021
Not really sure whether the brief was met. I’m sure that a more ordinary person, ie not a grandchild of Vita Sackville-West, wouldn’t have got it published. It’s full of bits and pieces really going from The Beatles to Plath to Profumo and Reg down the road who remembers his milk bottles freezing. Not to mention the Kennedy’s chucked in for good measure. Still easy read and some memories were triggered about life as it was when I too was a child in that winter.
September 14, 2024
Terrific hybrid of history and memoir, providing a look at a moment in time that included Bob Dylan, Sylvia Plath, the Beatles, and the Profumo scandal. Really enjoyable read
February 28, 2023
I married in 1963, it was bit like looking over my shoulder, thought I might get a mention, wonderfully nostalgic
September 21, 2025
Had the title been otherwise, this might have warranted a higher score. Nicholson writes well, and with evident passion, about the things which interest and enthuse here, and were this to be sold as a different beast in the form of a memoir or a snapshot in time, then fair enough.
Alas, it isn't presented as such, and for those looking for a deep and comprehensive look at the winter of 1962 as a hinge point in Britain will come away wondering what all the fuss is about. The actual discussion of the winter or the affect on ordinary people is squirreled away in a couple of chapters and anecdotes which mostly don't go much further than discussions of schoolboys wearing short trousers and getting cold, and the narrative quickly shifts to an odd combination of personal history interspersed with narrative of about six or seven symptoms showing the changes in Briton in the early 60s.
Alas, the main points about the change (the transition from the post War Conservative Etonian government to Wilsonian Labour, the Profumo Affair, the rise of the swinging 60s and the Beatles) are hardly groundbreaking stuff, and the disappointment which comes from those trying to find something interesting here is only increased by three key issues of Nicolson's approach.
In the first, Nicolson tries to include material which doesn't correspond entirely to her self-selected period of time, and so we get deep and heavily detailed sections on the lives of Dylan and Plath at a time when either their experiences are less incisive than Nicolson would like us to believe, or are largely moments which affect them rather than the Britain which emerged cheerfully oblivious of that change.
In the second, Nicolson's focus on the events of 1962-3 avoid discussion of wider and longer term factors which led to the changes which occured during or after that period. Accepting that the Profumo Affair had an effect in the transition to Wilson, it fails to account for the wider trends of dissatisfaction with the post-War consensus or of the wider issues undermining the MacMillan government, or of changes which occured afterwards which pushed Wilson into office.
Thirdly, Nicolson's approach to things she is passionate about is to go into deep and comprehensive detail about them, regardless if this is of benefit to the reader who might not share that passion. While it's perfectly acceptable to cite the specific effects of the Beatles on one who grew up at the time, the extent of hagiographic and starry-eyed detail to which the author dips varies between the cringeworthy and the plain repetitive, and the extent to which the author lapses into incredibly well covered narrative ground (especially on history of the Beatles and the wider Profumo affair) along with a fair bit of name dropping is fairly off-putting for those who got that far.
All in all, Frostquake is in desperate need of a new title, but whether by accident or design, it masquerades as something it is not, and is painfully found out as a result.
Alas, it isn't presented as such, and for those looking for a deep and comprehensive look at the winter of 1962 as a hinge point in Britain will come away wondering what all the fuss is about. The actual discussion of the winter or the affect on ordinary people is squirreled away in a couple of chapters and anecdotes which mostly don't go much further than discussions of schoolboys wearing short trousers and getting cold, and the narrative quickly shifts to an odd combination of personal history interspersed with narrative of about six or seven symptoms showing the changes in Briton in the early 60s.
Alas, the main points about the change (the transition from the post War Conservative Etonian government to Wilsonian Labour, the Profumo Affair, the rise of the swinging 60s and the Beatles) are hardly groundbreaking stuff, and the disappointment which comes from those trying to find something interesting here is only increased by three key issues of Nicolson's approach.
In the first, Nicolson tries to include material which doesn't correspond entirely to her self-selected period of time, and so we get deep and heavily detailed sections on the lives of Dylan and Plath at a time when either their experiences are less incisive than Nicolson would like us to believe, or are largely moments which affect them rather than the Britain which emerged cheerfully oblivious of that change.
In the second, Nicolson's focus on the events of 1962-3 avoid discussion of wider and longer term factors which led to the changes which occured during or after that period. Accepting that the Profumo Affair had an effect in the transition to Wilson, it fails to account for the wider trends of dissatisfaction with the post-War consensus or of the wider issues undermining the MacMillan government, or of changes which occured afterwards which pushed Wilson into office.
Thirdly, Nicolson's approach to things she is passionate about is to go into deep and comprehensive detail about them, regardless if this is of benefit to the reader who might not share that passion. While it's perfectly acceptable to cite the specific effects of the Beatles on one who grew up at the time, the extent of hagiographic and starry-eyed detail to which the author dips varies between the cringeworthy and the plain repetitive, and the extent to which the author lapses into incredibly well covered narrative ground (especially on history of the Beatles and the wider Profumo affair) along with a fair bit of name dropping is fairly off-putting for those who got that far.
All in all, Frostquake is in desperate need of a new title, but whether by accident or design, it masquerades as something it is not, and is painfully found out as a result.
July 21, 2025
I really struggled with this book. It was a book club read so I pushed through to the end, but had to keep putting it down to read something a bit more engaging, then coming back to it. I came close to DNF-ing multiple times.
So what was wrong with it?
- It was dry and actually quite often boring.
- I didn’t get on with the writing style at all. Random memories glued together with name-dropping and anecdotes about the famous and wealthy. It truly needs a good editor.
- It was repetitive.
- The timelines jumped around, often from one paragraph to the next, making it confusing at times.
- It was very unbalanced. Whilst I appreciate her research will have found details on the lives of well-known people, there was very little about the lives of the working classes during what must have been a terrible time for them. It seems she had time to research into well-known figures, and interview authors etc within her own privileged spheres, but no inclination to widen her interviews into those of a different background to her. Let’s face it, many of them are still alive and I’m sure would have a lot to share. In a book where she mentions equality multiple times it’s pretty disappointing.
- The premise of the hard winter of ‘62-‘63 being the reason Britain emerged as a different country just doesn’t stand up. Yes there were masses of political and social shifts in that time, however I’m not convinced the weather was the causative factor. This book certainly didn’t change my mind.
Is there anything I did like?
- the chapters are generally quite short, and pretty much stand alone, which enabled me to read one or two then put it down for a day or two to read something a bit more stimulating.
- The inclusion of photos piqued my interest as the time period covered was before I was born.
- I did learn some things I hadn’t known before.
In view of how painful (and slow) it was to read this, I give it two stars (not just one, as I did learn a couple of things by reading it)
Much like many people must’ve felt at the end of ten weeks of snow, I’m happy it’s over.
So what was wrong with it?
- It was dry and actually quite often boring.
- I didn’t get on with the writing style at all. Random memories glued together with name-dropping and anecdotes about the famous and wealthy. It truly needs a good editor.
- It was repetitive.
- The timelines jumped around, often from one paragraph to the next, making it confusing at times.
- It was very unbalanced. Whilst I appreciate her research will have found details on the lives of well-known people, there was very little about the lives of the working classes during what must have been a terrible time for them. It seems she had time to research into well-known figures, and interview authors etc within her own privileged spheres, but no inclination to widen her interviews into those of a different background to her. Let’s face it, many of them are still alive and I’m sure would have a lot to share. In a book where she mentions equality multiple times it’s pretty disappointing.
- The premise of the hard winter of ‘62-‘63 being the reason Britain emerged as a different country just doesn’t stand up. Yes there were masses of political and social shifts in that time, however I’m not convinced the weather was the causative factor. This book certainly didn’t change my mind.
Is there anything I did like?
- the chapters are generally quite short, and pretty much stand alone, which enabled me to read one or two then put it down for a day or two to read something a bit more stimulating.
- The inclusion of photos piqued my interest as the time period covered was before I was born.
- I did learn some things I hadn’t known before.
In view of how painful (and slow) it was to read this, I give it two stars (not just one, as I did learn a couple of things by reading it)
Much like many people must’ve felt at the end of ten weeks of snow, I’m happy it’s over.
August 14, 2021
Nostalgic review of early 60s
I remember the harsh winter of 1962-63; I was 14, living in Birmingham in a house which backed on to a lake. With my local friends I was able to bicycle on the frozen surface for several weeks. I remember the rise of the Beatles and the Cuban missile crisis. Not as well connected as the author, but even so I observed the various political scandals and the Cuba missile crisis.
The book shows the marks of the author’s enthusiasm and diligent research. Perhaps a slightly firmer hand on the part of an editor would have improved the text. There is a ready embrace of cliche and the prose is loose and rambling from time to time. It is a pleasurable bit of nostalgia for those who were there.
I remember the harsh winter of 1962-63; I was 14, living in Birmingham in a house which backed on to a lake. With my local friends I was able to bicycle on the frozen surface for several weeks. I remember the rise of the Beatles and the Cuban missile crisis. Not as well connected as the author, but even so I observed the various political scandals and the Cuba missile crisis.
The book shows the marks of the author’s enthusiasm and diligent research. Perhaps a slightly firmer hand on the part of an editor would have improved the text. There is a ready embrace of cliche and the prose is loose and rambling from time to time. It is a pleasurable bit of nostalgia for those who were there.
October 2, 2025
What a fascinating book! I had no idea of the existence of the Big Freeze, though I had to have lived through it being four at the time, nor how so many pivotal events were contemporaneous with it. I loved the way the author's family history is woven with the histories of the Beatles, the Profumo Affair and Mary Quant. I learned more about the early 60s from this book than from the many others I had read. What struck me was how unprepared the UK would be again in the event of another such extreme weather event. (Remember when trains ground to a halt because 'the wrong kind of snow' fell on the tracks?)
October 8, 2025
Enjoyable read about an interesting period but very much a surface skim. I was hoping for more grit and detail about the hard winter but really it’s just a light skim across the well-trodden tale of the early 60s social changes with some mentions of the winter thrown in.
I shouldn’t hold it against her that she’s part of the Sackville West/Nicholson clan so part of her own story is the “hardship” of keeping Sissinghurst Castle warm, but I do.
I shouldn’t hold it against her that she’s part of the Sackville West/Nicholson clan so part of her own story is the “hardship” of keeping Sissinghurst Castle warm, but I do.
October 17, 2025
Utterly rubbish book that was so bad and misrepresented I gave up reading it. So little about the winter of 1962-63 but more about poets, glamour models and pop groups. I feel totally let down buying this. Highly unrecommended. Don't waste your time.
September 4, 2025
Unbelievably fantastic. So interesting to read how one especially cold winter had such a huge impact on the cultural life of this country and marked a real turning point for Britain. 10/10
May 21, 2021
Oh the burden of being a Nicholson, the weight of all that writing expectation! I was a sucker for Frostquake - the 1962/63 Winter being that of my birth and the cover so reminiscent of David Kynaston's masterly Tales of a New Jerusalem series. I've yet to read the final volume of that which would include the same winter and since the approach is similar, it will be interesting to compare. This contains a more personal strand, an eerie mix of being a child at the time and the curious milieu of the wealthy (if sometimes cash strapped) and connected, and I felt this helped the book.
We'd already been induced to take a look back at that big freeze, triggered by the 2018 Beast from the East cold, and coverage accompanied by rather more vivid photographs than are included here. The linking of the weather to societal change is not, on such evidence as is presented, sustainable as an idea. You could argue that it was a kind of coda to post-war austerity but little is made of that.
The choice of topics and in particular the way space was allocated to them seemed uneven. There is so much about the Beatles and so much about the Profumo affair. What I did find of note, in the light of the latter now being held up as a shining example of enduring contrition for the kind of misdemeanours which modern day types merely brazen out, was Juliet Nicholson's personal #MeToo. It's a small but revealing incident and I am glad she has included it.
I felt the book lacked tight enough editorial oversight. There's reference to the Vassall affair with, as far as I could recall, no explanation (I had to consult Wikipedia) and the removal by detonation of an icy overhang on the Snake Pass appears twice. The latter being quite vivid and interesting to me by virtue of personal geography, I wonder what others I missed.
It was not an unenjoyable book for anyone who likes twentieth century social history, just didn't seem to deliver on its promise.
We'd already been induced to take a look back at that big freeze, triggered by the 2018 Beast from the East cold, and coverage accompanied by rather more vivid photographs than are included here. The linking of the weather to societal change is not, on such evidence as is presented, sustainable as an idea. You could argue that it was a kind of coda to post-war austerity but little is made of that.
The choice of topics and in particular the way space was allocated to them seemed uneven. There is so much about the Beatles and so much about the Profumo affair. What I did find of note, in the light of the latter now being held up as a shining example of enduring contrition for the kind of misdemeanours which modern day types merely brazen out, was Juliet Nicholson's personal #MeToo. It's a small but revealing incident and I am glad she has included it.
I felt the book lacked tight enough editorial oversight. There's reference to the Vassall affair with, as far as I could recall, no explanation (I had to consult Wikipedia) and the removal by detonation of an icy overhang on the Snake Pass appears twice. The latter being quite vivid and interesting to me by virtue of personal geography, I wonder what others I missed.
It was not an unenjoyable book for anyone who likes twentieth century social history, just didn't seem to deliver on its promise.
February 21, 2022
I am a confirmed Anglophile and this book fascinated me from the moment I discovered it on the Waterstone’s app that I regularly haunt on my phone. It’s a cultural history of England in the winter of 1962-3, based around a massive storm that occurred then. It started snowing on Dec. 26, 1962 and it didn’t stop for ten weeks; along with the storm came a deep-freeze that brought the country to a virtual standstill. Author Nicholson lived through this as a young girl and she is at her best in this book when she recounts her own life and that of her family during this period. But this huge storm—and its eventual thaw—was a metaphor for what was happening in Great Britain at the time. Twenty years after World War II, the country was still thawing out from a horrible, debilitating conflict that changed the world forever. Nicholson tells how things changed in this pivotal period, including race and gender relations, fashion, the rise of The Beatles, government scandals (such as the Profumo affair), England’s relationship with the United States, and the fall of the conservatives. As the spring thaw warms the nation, The Beatles (and to a lesser extent, James Bond) bring back some small measure of pride to the once mighty empire, and the new, more liberal government of Harold Wilson brings about much-needed change. I enjoyed this book immensely and Nicholson is a wonderful writer. Great Britain … come for the scenery, stay for the books.
July 26, 2021
I have enjoyed all the books I have read by Juliet Nicholson and was attracted to this one because evean though I was only four I have the memory of trudging through the snow next to my baby sister's pram with my feet fozen in wellington boots. Was probably very unhappy not just because of my frozen extremities but the fact that after four years of being the centre of attention I was now having to share the limelight. I do wonder how we kept warm at home as there was only one coal fire and that was in the living room with a wall heater in the bathroom to take the chill off. I expect we prefererred the tin bath downstairs which would be right in front of the roaring fire. I became aware of the Beatles through my older cousins and remember them going to see Help but was too young to really recall any of the shenanigans that went on in the early Sixties sadly in some cases, probably for the best in others. Obviously I learnt of the history of this period later on and it felt like I knew a lot of it already. The previous books were much more removed from my lived experiences and felt like real history but it is fascinating to realise I was living through these days unaware and this is now considered history just as much as the turn of the 19th Century and the perioid after The Great War.
January 30, 2022
I was born in 1952 so recall the 62/63 winter clearly and with affection. The period covered in this book reflects my final year at junior school so a threshold in my personal life. As a 10 year old I thoroughly enjoyed the perpetual snow with frosty nights and bright sunny days. Great time for sliding down hillsides on improvised sledges, building igloos and snowball fights. The book charts the big societal shifts taking place against the background of the endless winter which of course for many was a very challenging time. Good detail on the beginnings of the Beatles in Liverpool and stirrings of the Rolling Stones in London in effect the genesis of the swinging 60’s. The account of the Profumo affair is a good compact précis of the timeline of a parliamentary scandal set around privilege, sleaze, scandal and entitlement. I enjoyed reading about the way the leading newspapers sat on key information waiting for a cue from parliament which eventually emerged with a very dramatic speech in the House of Commons under protection of parliamentary privilege. An inescapable feeling of deja vu lingers at the start of 2022. The book captures the feeling of a society on the brink of fundamental change which begins to emerge with the melting of the snow and the blooming of the early spring flowers. A great read especially if you were born in the 1950’s.
February 17, 2021
In 1962 I had just turned nine years of age, and my remembrance of a bitter winter living in a small caravan next to a partially built house, was refreshed by Nicholson’s description of that time.
The history that is retold interwoven with stories of her own (very different childhood and family circumstances) brought a new perspective.
The winter although exceptional was in reality a minor catalyst for change. Exasperation with the old order, growing resistance to the established way of things, and new found freedoms of speech in the media (and for the individual) created a groundswell for change.
In concluding Nicholson raises valid, and ongoing concerns, ones that were first raised in the less receptive times of that cold winter. It is to be hoped that we do not allow ourselves to return to such a state of social division and establishment arrogance that existed as the snow fell on that Boxing Day in 1962.
All in all a splendid read, well researched, a work that possibly creates a hypothesis to explain what was the ending of a rather sad era.
The history that is retold interwoven with stories of her own (very different childhood and family circumstances) brought a new perspective.
The winter although exceptional was in reality a minor catalyst for change. Exasperation with the old order, growing resistance to the established way of things, and new found freedoms of speech in the media (and for the individual) created a groundswell for change.
In concluding Nicholson raises valid, and ongoing concerns, ones that were first raised in the less receptive times of that cold winter. It is to be hoped that we do not allow ourselves to return to such a state of social division and establishment arrogance that existed as the snow fell on that Boxing Day in 1962.
All in all a splendid read, well researched, a work that possibly creates a hypothesis to explain what was the ending of a rather sad era.
February 9, 2022
I picked up Frostquake after hearing my grandparents' talk about the winter of 1962 - they were engaged at the time and lived in one of the worst hit areas (East Sussex) and have fond memories of my Granny having to push their car up a hill after Boxing Day lunch! Admittedly this isn't an area of British history I know a great deal about and it's an interesting enough brief overview of the key events of 1962-3 and their impact on ordinary people; the chapter on LGBTQ+ rights and the illegality of homosexuality was particularly well written and explored. I also enjoyed the anecdotes about what life was like in the extraordinary winter and just what a big impact it had nationally.
For me what let Frostquake down was that the structure was a bit all over the place - some of the chapters leapt from theme to theme and they weren't in any particular order. I also found it a bit heavy on the pop culture (especially the multiple chapters on the Beatles) different to what I had expected and not to my own personal taste.
For me what let Frostquake down was that the structure was a bit all over the place - some of the chapters leapt from theme to theme and they weren't in any particular order. I also found it a bit heavy on the pop culture (especially the multiple chapters on the Beatles) different to what I had expected and not to my own personal taste.
June 26, 2021
This book gives a very haphazard account of some of the high profile people and events in the cultural, political and social life of Britain in the early 1960s. Nicolson’s thesis is built around the contention that the very severe winter of 1962 symbolized a watershed moment in British history from which the country emerged a changed place with a changed people. True, the Sixties were a time of radical social change, but I’m not sure that the snowdrifts of 1962 were the transition point. Poorly planned as this books is, I enjoyed the memories it evoked of the notables from my teenage years (Mary Quant, the Rolling Stones, Fonteyn and Nureyev, David Frost, Sylvia Plath, David Bailey, Harold Macmillan) and the places they hung out (The King’s Road, World’s End, Abbey Road, Madam Tussauds, Liverpool).
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