On the Cusp: Days of '62

Tales of a New Jerusalem #4

by David Kynaston

The 'real' Sixties began on 5 October 1962. On that remarkable Friday, the Beatles hit the world with their first single, 'Love Me Do', and the first James Bond film, Dr No, had its world premiere in London: two icons of the future heralding a social and cultural revolution.

On the Cusp, continuing David Kynaston's groundbreaking history of post-war Britain, takes place during the summer and early autumn of 1962, in the charged months leading up to the moment that a country changed. The Rolling Stones' debut at the Marquee Club, the last Gentlemen versus Players match at Lord's, the issue of Britain's relationship with Europe starting to divide the country, Telstar the satellite beaming live TV pictures across the world, 'Telstar' the record a siren call to a techno future – these were months thick with incident, all woven together here with an array of fresh contemporary sources, including diarists both famous and obscure.

Britain would never be the same again after these months. Sometimes indignant, sometimes admiring, always empathetic, On the Cusp evokes a world of seaside holidays, of church fetes, of Steptoe and Son – a world still of seemingly settled social and economic certainties, but in fact on the edge of fundamental change.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Cultural, British Literature

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 2, 2021

About the author

David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. He has been a professional historian since 1973 and has written eighteen books, including The City of London (1994-2001), a widely acclaimed four-volume history, and W.G.'s Birthday Party, an account of the Gentleman vs. the Players at Lord's in July 1898. He is the author of Austerity Britain, 1945-51, the first title in a series of books covering the history of post-war Britain (1945-1979) under the collective title "Tales of a New Jerusalem".

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great addition to David Kynaston's social history of the UK, although this, shorter volume, takes us only from June to October 1962. It is the cusp of the Sixties, which Kynaston dates as starting on a day which saw the release of the first Beatles single, "Love Me Do," and the premier of the first James Bond film. His list of people poised for stardom, notoriety or success, at the end of the book are seemingly endless, but, during those six months, so much would happen - both good and bad - to those that feature in this book that even this short time span is packed with incident.

Kynaston as always has a great deal about post-war housing redevelopment, with the continuation of tower blocks and overspill council estates. He also muses on people's reliance on television, which now had two channels and new favourites, such as "Steptoe and Son," joining old favourites, such as "Z Cars." Trad Jazz was losing popularity, "Telstar," topped the charts, Harold Macmillan was seen as tired and out of touch and Sylvia Plath answered a phone call and realised Ted Hughes was being unfaithful.

Variety was also less popular, new politicians included Jeremy Thorpe and Margaret Thatcher, while Profumo stayed in the cabinet and Oswald Mosley still held rallies attracting thousands. Race was still a contentious issue, with immigrants finding themselves ironically accused of both living off the State and taking jobs. Housing was difficult to find and immigrants were unwelcome and had to rely on unscrupulous landlords. Meanwhile, the Beeching Report loomed on the horizon, green shield stamps appeared, there was a tense writer's conference in Edinburgh, thalidomide was still causing birth defects, agriculture was changing, there was dismay at the loss of National Heritage sites. "Private Eye," was a year old, Frankie Howard was a success at "The Establishment," club, co-founded by Peter Cook and another Peter, Pete Best, found himself repaced by Ringo Starr.

Although Kynaston does not dwell too much on The Beatles, they loom over this book, a presence as yet not nationally known, but soon to step onto the national stage (the World Stage would take a little longer) and change the country forever. They would be followed by others who feature in this book, including Mick Jagger, whose reception at the Marquee club that year was muted, with a virtually unmoving Jagger fronting the Rolling Stones. However, Jagger would soon find his feet, the Beatles would unleash Beatlemania and London would begin to Swing.... I look forward to reading on and have really enjoyed this series of social history books so far.

[Gram · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkably detailed account of life in Britain in 1962. The author, David Kynaston, covers an astonishingly wide range of topics from agriculture and architecture through economics, culture and education to immigration and its attendant racism, politics and urban renewal.
Along the way, there are details of TV shows and plays, sport and music - pop and folk, as well as classical. It was a time when television was impacting more and more on people's lives - from soap operas such as "Coronation Street", comedies such as the groundbreaking "Steptoe & Son" to political satire in the shape of "That Was The Week That Was".
According to Kynaston, the "real" 1960's began on Friday, October 5th 1962 when simultaneously The Beatles released their first single - "Love Me Do" - and "Dr No" - the first James Bond film - premiered in London.
Throughout there are detailed snapshots of post-war Britain with the country's politicians debating capital punishment, the legalisation of homosexuality and Britain's proposed entry to the Common Market with the Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and most of his party in favour while Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell and the Labour Left strongly against. As with Brexit, the country's voters were divided on the subject.
Using articles from newspapers and magazines and excerpts from diaries of the famous and not so famous, Kynaston builds up a picture of a nation seemingly set in its social conservative ways, but soon to be subjected to important changes.
My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for an advance copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.

[Ade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very odd entry in David Kynaston's ongoing "New Jerusalem" series of histories. Covering only a six month period in a fairly unremarkable year, it feels somewhat slight and partial. Is it a stopgap because the next 'proper' volume (apparently "Opportunity Britain 1962-1967") is taking so long? The equivalent of an EP between albums? A special report? It describes things that would only turn into proper Significant Events in the following twelve months, and it necessarily has to glance both back and forward by a decade or more to expose the proper relevance of many of these. (For example, yes The Beatles debut single was released in October but the immediate aftermath of that moment is simply implied here - obviously we all know where it led in hindsight, but the absence of even the first few weeks of that story renders the telling that bit less exciting.) We may arguably have been on the cusp of momentous change, but the tight scope of this book is in danger of turning it into all build-up and no reward; historia interruptus. The approach reminds me somewhat of 1939: The Last Season, except the stakes were rather larger for that one.

Fortunately, elsewhere all the typical joys of Kynaston's writing are fully present: the recitals of seemingly quotidian yet telling anecdotes and announcements, the analysis of formative movements that would grow to have outsized influence in the times ahead, and the gossipy memoirs and preemptory jockeying of leading politicians. There are useful asides on racial integration (or its lack), the Welsh nationalist movement and the European question that would eventually seduce and then consume the British psyche. It's a shame that the period covered is so brief, because devouring it takes no time at all either.

To be honest, much as I enjoyed this as always, it's probably more like 3.5 stars because the greater picture is necessarily missing or mentioned in dispatches. Full steam ahead to the next five years, please, but hopefully not in another five years time.

[F.R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an odd and incredible fact that The Beatles first single, LOVE ME DO came out exactly the same day at the first Bond film, DOCTOR NO. The fifth of October, 1962. The day The Swinging Sixties really started.

This is an entertaining look at the couple of months leading up to that, weaving together diaries, snippets of biographies and events in the news to create a tapestry.

For a moment, I did think I was looking at a distant world to see Harold MacMillan placing family members in his cabinet, then I remembered Boris Johnson did exactly the same thing.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A treat of a book for someone born in the late fifties. I can almost remember 1962 and agree it was the cusp. I can certainly remember what came afterwards and this book sets it all up very nicely across the board.

I’ve raged against the 1960s and 1970s town planners for much of my life. The book gives me every reason to feel vindicated in this...but, it rubs salt into the wound by including eminent architects from the period pointing out that what they were doing was destroying towns and town centres. Banbury must have been lovely in the late fifties!

The great successes of our cultural life; the creation of a diverse society, the great flowering of British popular music, television plays and working class novels and novelists (inevitably northern) were created (along with so much else) out of this world, and often through great pain, injustice and the need to fight.

I’m unsure whether I like the modern use of the word “curate” as a verb among the arty folk but I can think of no better than to say that this book is beautifully curated. The selection of source material is inspired but the selection from this source material, and the juxtapositioning is a delight.

If anyone asks me from now where I come from, I’ll point to the book and say, “There."

[Laura Spira · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a weird feeling when you realise that you are old enough for historians to be writing about times that you remember. David Kynaston's previous volume "Modernity Britain" covered my childhood and I have been eagerly awaiting the next volume, due to cover 1962 to 1967. This book is perhaps a little prequel to that, covering the summer and autumn of 1962, up to 5 October, the date on which Kynaston asserts that the Sixties began, with the release of the Beatles' "Love Me Do". (I can remember exactly where I was the first time I heard that.)

This is a fascinating snapshot of a Britain that was about to change. Kynaston draws extensively on the diaries of ordinary people as well as more conventional sources and the picture of the social norms of the day reminds the reader of how much things have changed. And how much they haven't. The section on the debate about Britain entering the Common Market is particularly poignant. He makes clever use of obituaries to describe his selection of ten people representing the old guard and ten examples of leaders of change (no women among them) but for me the tour de force is his long list of familiar names from all walks of life, describing who and where they were and what they were doing in 1962 - not "Where are they now?" but "Where were they then?" And all sources impeccably referenced.

Very much looking forward to the next instalment of this impressive history sequence.

i'm looking

[Stephen Goldenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enjoyable and readable scrapbook style social history of a part of the year 1962. Especially fascinating to me as I was a teenager back then and it brought back many memories. Told mostly through firsthand accounts (diary extracts, letters, newspaper reports etc), all knitted together to give a very thorough picture of a key period, often described as ‘the start of the sixties’.
Very strong sections on the changes happening within agriculture and food production and planning issues, both of which are very relevant to issues that are still controversial and important today.

[Ipswichblade · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big fan of these David Kynaston histories of Britain since the war however this "one year" version doesn't work as well as the others and very much feels like a filler.

[Ken Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Kynaston must be the premier social historian of post-war Britain writing today, and his latest book is a fine, standalone work that really captures the air of a country that was about to change beyond all recognition.

The first three volumes of his putative series that will take the British national story from 1945 to 1979, Austerity Britain, Family Britain and Modernity Britain are house-brick sized volumes that really capture the themes embodied in their titles, and take the reader from 1945 to the early months of 1962. The next volume, which we have been waiting for since 2013, is to be called Opportunity Britain and will take the story from late 1962 to a point in 1967. However, that has not been written so what we have to keep us going is this short volume which argues that the starting point for the 1960s was October 1962 when the first James Bond film and the first single by the Beatles were released on the same day.

The Beatles clearly embody much of the 1960s, as do the Rolling Stones who also played one of their first gigs before a paying audience of two in a North Cheam pub “while four people stood outside listening for free”. However, it was far from certain in 1962 that either of those two groups would amount to anything at all, but the same cannot be said of what must surely be the real start to the 1960s which came about the year earlier in 1961.The contraceptive pill was only prescribed by the NHS to married women until 1967, but it was available on a private prescription from its 1961 introduction. That, along with the five-point geometric haircut invented by Vidal Sassoon in 1965, and the miniskirt of 1966, must embody the hedonistic spirit of the decade that only ended with the oil crisis in 1974. The music was background noise to the glorious New Britain that actually began with the Pill. None of those factors are mentioned by Kynaston, who instead chose to concentrate on three themes not discussed in his earlier works – rural life, industrial Wales, and immigration.

Life in the agricultural regions began to change in 1947 with the Agriculture Act: “On the one hand, cheap food for urban consumers without a heavy reliance upon imports; on the other hand, price-support manipulation, capital grants, subsidies and so on for the farmers”. It was a system that worked very well, especially for the large-scale farmers, in what we think of today as agri-business. But the lot of the rural poor remained drab and miserable. Kynaston illustrates this with the tale of two spinster sisters, both in their 50s, who had pooled their limited resources to buy the farmhouse where they had both been born. They kept a few cows and other livestock. Water was brought in from a well, the cows were milked by hand and the resulting milk was churned by them into butter which was sold to their neighbours. The sisters’ way of life died with them as the young left the countryside to seek better wages in the towns and the urban middle class began to move into the vacated villages.

The old squirearchy became irrelevant with only a few from the old order hanging on in greatly reduced circumstances. At the same time, as farm sizes increased, the number of actual farmers and farm workers fell. Although farmers were involved in local politics and many of them served on district councils where they sat as the replacements for the old manor house caste, many stopped doubling up as local politicians because running their farms as businesses took up far too much time. Thus the professional, middle-class incomers began to run life in the rural areas, for better and for worse.

Over in Wales, coal was still king, but the throne looked decidedly wobbly. Oil was taking over as a means of heating and steam engines were giving way to diesel ones. Luckily for the Welsh, steel making boomed, as did the ancillary industries that relied on steel, so a redundant miner had few problems finding work that was a lot cleaner, a lot safer and often a lot better paid than mining. Few in Wales objected to pit closures; that would come decades later when mining had become the only game in many Welsh towns. Politics was dominated by Labour who had run Wales as a fiefdom for most of the century. By the 1960s that had led to the usual story of civic corruption and local cronyism, but demands for change were muted at best. The desire for Home Rule was a minority interest, mainly amongst the declining numbers who spoke Welsh. It is true that the Welsh Language Society was formed in 1962 to fight for the language, but Wales in that year still looked like the country that had been formed by the valleys, the mines, the chapels, the temperance societies, the unions and above all the Labour Party. Given that Wales is still dominated by Labour, one might ask what was really so special about 1962 in the country’s long history?

Opposition to non-White immigration was fairly widespread, with some managers at some factories letting the immigrant workers go first if there was a retrenchment. As one manager pointed out, “there would be a riot” if he hadn’t done that. The unionised workers were often opposed to the new influx as they saw the incomers as a tool that would be used by management to cut the wages. Peter Rachman was still alive and still letting out properties to West Indians most landlords would not rent to. Kynaston suggests that much of the opprobrium that settled on Rachman later came about not by his actions, but by those of his black underlings who found him his tenants and collected the rents. Rachman set the rent, and the underlings increased it substantially, so that they could rip off both Rachman and the tenants. Opposition to New Commonwealth immigration was widespread but inchoate, as both main parties supported the government’s policy. Sometimes a hard line was attempted, as when a Jamaican shoplifter was deported back to her home country – something today’s government cannot seem to manage – but by and large, a lid was kept on popular discontent via a quiet agreement between the two parties. It is hard to tell what has changed since then, to be honest.

One error that has crept into the text is a reference to my old tutor at Ruskin College, Oxford, Raph Samuel. Kynaston refers to him as “Ralph (later Raphael) Samuel,” but he was never called by that name and was known to everyone who knew him as Raph. It is possible that Kynaston misread Raph for Ralph, the type of error we have all made at one time or another, but I hope that it can be corrected for later editions.

That minor caveat aside, On the Cusp is a very worthy addition to anyone’s shelf. The work done on creating a greater understanding of rural life makes it worthwhile on its own, but taken all together, On the Cusp reminds us of just how close and yet so far away we are from the early 1960s.

An edited version of my review first appeared in The Brazen Head, an online political and literary quarterly journal. https://brazen-head.org/

[Rob McMinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

According to the Big 60s Sort Out podcast, the Sixties began in 1960. According to me, a pedant, they began in 1961 because we don’t count from zero (and they ended in 1970). According to Phillip Larkin, they began in 1963, while proponents of “the Long Sixties” argue that they began in 1956 and ended in 1973. My current read, by Christopher Bray, makes the case for 1965 as “the year modern Britain began”, but my previous read, by David Kynaston (him again) zooms in on the summer of 1962.
Here we are. I declare my interest: this is the year I was born, though in December, so after the events of this book. What is this book? It has the feel of a lockdown project. It’s part of Kynaston’s history of modern Britain series, which begins with Austerity Britain and then moves on through Family Britain (1951-57), Modernity Britain (57-62), and A Northern Wind (62-65). So what is this? Both Modernity Britain and A Northern Wind cover 1962, so why publish a book in the middle called On the Cusp?
Well, I suppose there’s a clue in the title. The series as a whole is called ‘Tales of a New Jerusalem’, but in my mind it has the same title as that Moody Blues album Days of Future Passed. On the Cusp implies that we’ve reached a tipping point and that the author has decided to take stock around that tipping point before proceeding. He is, in effect, arguing that 1962 is the year that modern Britain began.
I’m interested in the publication dates, and convinced that lockdown had something to do with this. The previous volume, Modernity Britain, came out in 2015. This appeared in 2022, and A Northern Wind was published in 2024. So, he’s working on A Northern Wind for nearly 10 years, and possibly finds himself wrestling with its length. (I wonder how Mark Lewisohn is getting on with the second volume of he ‘All These Years’ series?) Presumably, the publishers want the book to be around 7-800 pages, so what is he to do with this 200-page section about the summer of 1962? And what would the reader make of a book that promised to take you up to 1965, but spends its first 200 pages leading up to the Beatles first single? Oh, and that first James Bond film, a coincidence John Higgs already wrote about in Love and Let Die.
And then lockdown happens, and the solution must have presented itself. I’ll just do a separate book, which can be published sooner, and give me a bit more time to work on the rest.
Here we are. That’s what this book is: an almost day-by-day account of the events of summer 1962. The cricket season, the last Gentlemen v. Players games, Steptoe and Son on the telly, the BBC hesitating over the pilot episodes of That Was The Week That Was, The Beatles on the radio, playing gigs around the country, the Rolling Stones presenting themselves as a blues band. It’s written in the style of one of those newspaper gossip columns, or the NME’s back-page “Teazers” column, with its anthropomorphised three little dots. Sometimes events get just a sentence, or a clause. And then sometimes Kynaston pauses and spends some time discussing what the politicians were up to, or how people reacted to an event. There’s very little mention of Harold Wilson, which is fascinating – because he is months away from becoming Labour leader when Hugh Gaitskell suddenly dies. A weird parallel to the way Tony Blair succeeded John Smith.
I remember my mum talking about certain cricketers as ‘gentlemen’ or ‘players’ and I remember thinking, what are you on about? And of course the reason I didn’t know was because that whole silly thing died its death a few months before I was born.
The book finishes, in true “Teazers” style, with several lists. There are 10 establishment figures whose day is done; and then 10 “new establishment” figures whose day is to come. And then a long old list, a record-breaking sentence, telling us all about the significant characters who will impact the next few years, and what they are doing on that fateful day when “Love Me Do” hit the shops.
Why did I pick this up when I haven’t read the previous two books yet. I plan to, but then this was only 200 pages, and I picked it up with British Summer Time Begins and 1965. I think I wanted to read about the world I vaguely knew but barely remember, the world of paraffin heaters and black and white telly. Interestingly (for me, I mean) 1965 begins with Winston Churchill’s funeral, which I do remember even though I had only just turned 2 when it took over the television and was on instead of Watch with Mother.
Anyway, it’s good, this. But you should probably, unlike me, read the books in the correct chronological order.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The research that has gone into this book is truly amazing. Even though I read it in very small chunks, there is just too much detail. Mainly a collection of bits and pieces from newspapers and journals. Everything that was happening in those months from June through to October 1962 is there, politically, culturally, everything. I was seventeen years old, about to start my final year at school. Sleeping in my own tiny box room in the house in Braintree in Essex. Going out early in the morning on my paper round six days a week.

All I will do in this review is to mention some of those things I found interesting. For example, I didn't know that David Bowie (or Jones as he was then) played saxophone for The Konrads, a six piece instrumental group, at Bromley Technical Schools PTA fete. See waht I mean about the detail, so much taken from publications of the day. Pieces about the Keep Britain Out (of Europe) campaign and Doctor Beeching decimating the railways. The Pilkington Report into television and the controverst when the BBC was given a second channel.

A mention about "Double Your Money" reminded me that on our visits to our grandmother as children, we watched ITV for the first time as it was banned at home. Tuesday 10th June was "Telstar" day, the first ever hazy picture via satellite of a person in the USA picked up from a giant dish at Goonhilly Downs at The Lizard in Cornwall. The Architect's Journal magazine had a photo of a model for the Gateshead Shopping Centre, later immortalised in Michael Caine's "Get Carter".

There is a lot about agriculture and what was happening in Parliament, especially the fuss about whether to join the EEC. But I preferred the stuff about what was happening at the theatre and the last Gentlemen v Players cricket match at Lords. Then out of the blue: "That afternoon in West Sussex, entries for the Rustington Flower Show were up from 206 to 543". Wow!

When we reach September, The Beatles arrive at Abbey Road Studios on the 4th to record "How do you do it", the intended A side of their first single with "Love Me Do" as the B side. here were then eight pages about what was happening in Wales. Against the serious stuff of mining and industry was set The Beatles playing at Port Sunlight. Cliff and he Shadows appear on The Billy Cotton Bandshow but were poorly received. The Sunday Times colour magazine included a discussion that featured Alun Owen, who wrote the screenplay for "A Hard Day's Night", and who was a neighbour on Napier Road in West Kensington.

Then a large section about race relations, especially in the workplace. Although the Asians brought curry to the metropolis. "We had to sell egg and chips to start with, customers took a long time to start trying curry, even having added milk to make it milder. At first they always had chips with their curry, never rice". I remember the George Wimpey canteen serving curried egg and chips. Delicious.

The programmes on television was interesting unlike notes on a number of public figures. In the last chapter we are in the first week of October. On the 5th, "Love Me Do" was released as the A side and "P S I Love You" on the B. Both were essentially McCartney songs but it was maybe a printing error that it was attributed to Lennon-McCartney instead of the other way around. I know my brother John was impressed. He played a little harmonica (the instrument featured on the record) and declared, before the rest of the world caught up, that this band would be big.

[Bookthesp1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kynaston normally writes huge volumes the size of the bricks he normally alludes to in long chapters on housing developments and town planning. On the cusp was written in lockdown- a sort of sandwich taster volume about 1962 and in that sense it is a thin affair - around 200 pages all still heavily noted at the end with the index but sadly no bibliography- it becomes a precursor to the next big volume covering post war history from 1962-65 which was going to be titled Opportunity Britain but now has the more opaque and less obvious title - A Northern Wind - perhaps Kynaston wants to do his own levelling up in this big new volume to make up for the lack of government action- still back to “on the cusp “

For a book written during lockdown it does show Kynastons methodology stripped bare since this thinner volume is easier to digest in smaller morsels So it’s clear that he adopts the usual patchwork style - every paragraph from multiple sources intricately woven together to form a seemingly banal but actually fascinating narrative of mores; tropes; happenings and events contextualised occasionally and peppered with famous and not so famous people from mass obs diarist Nella Last to Richard Hoggart or Alf Ramsey - the overall effect is mesmerising.

Kynaston sees some events in 1962 as the real hinge point to launch the real 1960s- hence the Beatles Love Me Do is released pretty much the same time as the first Bond Film Dr No - hence the swinging is about to begin!! Towards the end of the book he also lists 10 people that might be targets for David Frost led satire and 10 people who might lead a more liberal counter offensive to the establishment. To prove his on the cusp title he spends a few pages listing individuals who were about to become famous from 1962 onwards including people like John Noakes then working in Rep or Mary Whitehouse - a school teacher and the Fab 4 themselves with the Stones still almost in embryonic formation.

This book was better than I had expected- meticulously constructed and clever in its patchwork of lives lived and worlds being built - I am playing catch up - A Northern Wind - that big shiny new volume only going up to 1965 is sat waiting !!

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The early 1960s in Britain were in many respects a continuation of the 1950s - in attitude, style, culture and politics. Arguably the changes to what we regard as The Swinging Sixties came in 1962 with the advent of The Beatles and some other major developments in politics and social development.

This is the backdrop to this brilliant survey of Britain in the summer of 1962 by David Kynaston. Continuing his masterly social histories of post Second World War Britain, Kynaston seamlessly weaves accounts from newspapers, official documents and personal accounts (letters and diaries) to record life in these critical weeks.

This is a pleasure to read. The coverage is extensive, with important features on the experiences of agricultural workers and black and minority ethnic people suffering everyday discrimination. I particularly like the pen-portraits included in the survey of key people at the time and those who were on their way to important positions in social life.

This is an excellent account which is highly recommended.

[Jeff Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the latest volume in David Kynaston’s protracted ‘New Jerusalem’ social history series looking at post war Britain between 1945 & 1979. The previous 3 volumes have been door stoppers - this one only covers a few months of 1962 (and was written during the pandemic).
Unlike other chroniclers of the period (most notably Dominic Sandbrook) Kynaston uses the diaries and letters of ordinary people to tell the story of the country - in this book there’s a particular focus on Wales, agriculture in Britain and the immigrant experience.
The book ends with the release of the Beatles first single and the opening night of James Bond’s first celluloid adventure Dr No. It would be a few more years until the decade started swinging but those two events heralded the start of what most people would consider to be the sixties.
Kynaston’s pace is so slow that you fear that he won’t get to the end of the sequence but if the destination isn’t yet in sight, the journey itself is extremely enjoyable.

[Eyejaybee · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Kynaston identifies a brief period in 1962 as the cusp between the post war period and the Swinging Sixties, identifying the nexus as coming with the release of the Beatles’ first single and the release of Dr No, the first James Bond film starring Sean Connery.

I found this an interesting approach, but the book itself seemed very chaotic, consisting of not much more than a list of reports from local newspapers around the country. I felt that Kynaston managed to overplay a potentially interesting take on recent history to the extent that he actually made the book feel almost oppressive.

I have read a lot of books covering this period of history (of particular interest to me as I was born in 1963), but felt that despite my high expectations based on having read some of his previous books, this was rather a let down.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

At only 200 pages this is a very slim volume by David kynaston's standards but this concentrates on a specific period in 1962 based around the interesting premise that this was the beginning of
everything changing. The Beatles, James Bond, That Was The Week that Was, applying to be part of Europe (sounds familiar) to name but a few. Can you make the same argument about almost any year if you really try ? Possibly, but there was something about 1962 and beyond that was very different from Britain in the 1940's and 1950's and this becomes clear if you make your way through the series of Kynaston volumes which begins in 1945 entitled Austerity Britain. One more volume to go now (A Northern Wind) until I've caught up with how far he has written

[Brian Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read . I was born in same year as Mr Kynaston so could remember/relate to a lot of the references to people, music and TV programmes . Some very interesting parallels between then and now in terms of immigration and racism and also attitudes to Europe ( although interesting to see Tories more for joining Common market than Labour were). Macmillan emphasised the benefits - economically, politically and militarily to combat the spread of communism. So what's changed?
Interesting structure to book with so much detail packed into each paragraph. Not always easy to read but overall well worth a read of a significant year for UK because of the profound changes about to happen.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this relatively brief account of the 4 months in 1962 leading up to the day when the author suggests everything changed - the day in October when the Beatles released "Love me do". He covers a huge range of subjects including societal changes, politics, race relations, popular culture to name a few, showing how the country was slowly pivoting from looking back to the 40s and 50s to looking forward to the 60s and new ways of living, enjoying life or new challenges. He recounts a lot of it through the words of ordinary people, often through the Mass Observation diaries which makes the period come alive.

[Tobias · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant social history of Britain during a 3 month period in the summer and early autumn of 1962 which vividly captures a day by day account giving a flavour of the times through extracts from diaries and newspapers. The use of memoirs from people who subsequently become well known gives a perspective on this time from the point of view of what was about to happen. There are also resonances with the present with the them of the 1962 debate about Britain's relationship with Europe.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giving 4 stars for the sheer volume of research that has gone into this book. Everything from culture, politics, land use, immigration and much more besides, that happened in 1962. Showing clearly that this really was a turning point in so many areas. I was a child in 1962 and some of this feels familiar, it was the mix that we grew up with and for our parents, a huge change from the post war years. A book to be dipped into and not read in one sitting.

[Peter Kilburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit that David Kynaston is my favourite historian of post WW2 Britain- his style is immensely readable and he is thorough in his research. Whilst I was familiar with some of the events recorded in the earlier volumes the series has now reached the stage where I have a clear memory of many of the events described. Kynaston's use of diaries makes the events seem fresh as the writers are living witnesses to the events they record.

[Greville Waterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evocative, well researched and beautifully written, this is a thorough and eclectic overview of Britain in 1962 and provides an excellent snapshot of the social, cultural and political mores of the time.

A short but worthwhile read by an excellent historian that brought back some shadowy memories previously lost deep in the mists of time.

[Moirad · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars really, and would have been 5 if it weren't so short! Brilliant social history, and what an intriguing idea to focus on just a few months in 1962, when so much started to change. This series is packed with interesting detail, meticulous research, and as someone born in 1950 becoming more and more personally relevant.

[Chris Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those awkward books that I didn't really enjoy - not because there's anything intrinsically wrong with it, but just because I feel I'm not the intended audience ...

The year 1962 means nothing to me (it's long before I was born) but I can see that if you have memories of that year (or the era) you could get some good nostalgia out of this.

[Nigel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The latest in David Kynaston's series of social histories of Britain from the end of the war till 1979. This book I think will be a bridge between the first 3 volumes during which Britain was still recovering from the war and the remaining volumes when Britain starts to move on starting with the swinging sixties.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Britain was at a turning point as the year drew to a close. Just before The Beatles really hit it big, the country was on the verge of huge social change. This is explored in a series of rather stodgy essays by this eminent historian.

[Phil Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The next book in this series of postwar British history. Always very readable. I especially enjoy how ordinary lives are represented - including what was happening on TV or in sport. I look forward to the next volume when (if?) its published.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonably interesting history. Very typical of Kynaston's style.

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Packed full of facts and information (some of which is annoying and inconsequential) Great to be reminded of events which shaped one's teenage years.

[Clare Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read, I love the way he interweaves culture, society and world events over the summer before things started to really change