Austerity Britain

by David Kynaston

  3. M-O A, TC 85/7/B; Geoffrey Thomas, Women and Industry (1948), pp 1, 4; Phyllis Willmott, Joys and Sorrows (1995), pp 21–2; Willmott, 18 Jul 1947; The Times, 22 Sept 1988, Independent, 23 Sept 1988; Sue Aspinall, ‘Women, Realism and Reality in British Films, 1943–53’, in James Curran and Vincent Porter (eds), British Cinema History (1983), p 286.

  4. M-O A, FR 2537.

  5. Phyllis G. Allen, ‘Evening Activities in the Home’, Sociological Review (1951), Section 7, pp 1–15; BBC WA, R9/9/12–LR/48/1261; Anthony Adamthwaite, ‘“Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation”’, Contemporary Record (Winter 1993), pp 558–9.

  6. BBC WA, R9/21; Haines, 26 Jul 1947, 9 Aug 1947, 11/13/16 Sept 1947, 4 Oct 1947; Ford, 9–10/12/29 Feb 1948, 1/15 Mar 1948; BBC WA, R9/9/12–LR/48/1219. .

  7. Radio Times, 11 Apr 1947; Independent, 1 Jun 1990 (Sowerbutts obituary); M-O A, TC 53/2/D; Helena Barrett and John Phillips, Suburban Style (1987), p 186; Jenny Uglow, A Little History of British Gardening (2004), p 286.

  8. Daily Express, 10/12 May 1947; Neville Cardus, Cardus in the Covers (1978), p 106; Independent, 31 Oct 2003; Daily Telegraph, 16 Dec 1991 (Arlott obituary); Pilot Papers (Dec 1947), p 75.

  9. Patrick Slater, The Demand for Holidays in 1947 and 1948 (The Social Survey, 1948), p 2; M-O A, TC 58/2/F; Chaplin, 7/3/1, 18 Jun 1947.

  10. Brown, 1/16, 7 May 1947; Langford, 12 Aug 1947; Colin Ward and Dennis Hardy, Goodnight Campers! (1986), p 110; M-O A, TC 58/2/G.

  11. Chris Bryant, Glenda Jackson (1999), pp 9–10; Bill Wyman, Stone Alone (1990), pp 48–9; Brian Simon, Education and the Social Order, 1940–1990 (1991), p 108; L. S. Hearnshaw, Cyril Burt (1979), p 118; Nirmala Rao, ‘Labour and Education’, Contemporary British History (Summer 2002), p 113.

  10 The Whole World is Full of Permits

  1. Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour in Power, 1945–1951 (Oxford, 1984), pp 253–4; Giles Radice, Friends and Rivals (2002), p 64; Edward Pearce, Denis Healey (2002), p 76.

  2. Adrian Turner, Robert Bolt (1998), p 69; Mervyn Jones, Chances (1987), p 114; Steve Parsons, ‘British “McCarthyism” and the Intellectuals’, in Jim Fyrth (ed), Labour’s Promised Land? (1995), pp 227–31; Phillip Deery, ‘“The Secret Battalion”’, Contemporary British History (Winter 1999), p 20.

  3. Bernard Donoughue and G. W. Jones, Herbert Morrison (1973), p 403; Morgan, Labour, p 121; Coventry Evening Telegraph, 17 May 1948; Asa Briggs, Michael Young (Basingstoke, 2001), pp 81–2; Gaitskell, p 72.

  4. James Lees-Milne, Caves of Ice (Faber edn, 1984), p 192; M-O A, TC 25/17/I; M-O A, D 5353, 10 Aug 1947; Kenneth Harris, Attlee (1982), p 346; Lees-Milne, Caves, p 197; John Fforde, The Bank of England and Public Policy, 1941–1958 (Cambridge, 1992), p 157.

  5. Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, 1948 (1948), p 227; Financial Times, 21 Aug 1947; Speed, 28 Aug 1947; Lees-Milne, Caves, p 208; St John, 28 Aug 1947.

  6. For a helpful overview of the whole question of planning vis-à-vis Keynesianism in 1947/8, see: Jim Tomlinson, Democratic Socialism and Economic Policy (Cambridge, 1997), chap 10.

  7. Stephen Brooke, ‘Problems of “Socialist Planning”’, Historical Journal, 34/(1991), pp 687–702; Chris Wrigley, ‘Trade Union Development 1945–79’, in Wrigley (ed), A History of British Industrial Relations, 1939–1979 (Cheltenham, 1996), p 77; New Statesman, 18 Oct 1947; Nick Tiratsoo, ‘Labour and the Reconstruction of Hull, 1945–51’, in Tiratsoo (ed), The Attlee Years (1991), p 137.

  8. Coventry Evening Telegraph, 9 Jun 1947, 22 May 1948.

  9. Patrick Dunleavy, The Politics of Mass Housing in Britain, 1945–1975 (Oxford, 1981), p 260; Manchester Guardian, 19 Apr 1948; Steen Eiler Rasmussen, London (1948), p 426; Journal of the Town Planning Institute (Jul–Aug 1948), p 151; James Lansdale Hodson, Thunder in the Heavens (1950), p 105.

  10. J. B. Priestley, The Linden Tree (1948), pp 62–3; Vincent Brome, Aneurin Bevan (1953), pp 1–3.

  11. Tony Benn, Years of Hope (1994), pp 125–7; Horizon (Jul 1947), p 1; The Letters of Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Volume III (Cambridge, 1978), p 465; Philip M. Williams, Hugh Gaitskell (1979), p 141.

  12. Steven Fielding et al, ‘England Arise!’ (Manchester, 1995), p 172; Jeremy Nuttall, ‘“Psychological Socialist”, “Militant Moderate”’, Labour History Review (Aug 2003), pp 247–8; Stephen Brooke, ‘Evan Durbin’, Twentieth Century British History 7/1 (1996), p 51.

  13. Streat, pp 414, 419; Ben Pimlott, Harold Wilson (1992), p 111; David Howell, ‘Wilson and History’, Twentieth Century British History, 4/2 (1993), p 180.

  14. This account of the Conservative Party’s post-1945 remaking of policy owes much to Harriet Jones, ‘“New Conservatism?”’, in Becky Conekin et al (eds), Moments of Modernity (1999), pp 171–88.

  15. Bertrand de Jouvenel, Problems of Socialist England (1949), p 23; Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power (1995), p 48; My Dear Max: The Letters of Brendan Bracken to Lord Beaverbrook, 1925–1958 (1990), p 58; Conservative Party, The Industrial Charter (popular edn, 1947), p 4; Spectator, 16 May 1947, 10 Oct 1947; The Times, 3 Oct 1947. Also for the Brighton conference, see: Anthony Howard, RAB (1987), pp 156–7.

  16. Jones, ‘“New Conservatism?”’, pp 177–8, 187; Reginald Maudling, Memoirs (1978), p 45; Scott Kelly, ‘Ministers Matter’, Contemporary British History (Winter 2000), pp 38–9; Headlam, p 526.

  17. M-O A, FR 2516; Lees-Milne, Caves, p 241.

  11 Ain’t She Lovely?

  1. John Barnes, Ahead of His Age (1979), pp 402, 410; W. R. Matthews, Memories and Meanings (1969), p 310; Sunday Pictorial, 19/26 Oct 1947; The Times, 16 Sept 1972.

  2. Sunday Pictorial, 12 Jan 1947; Robert Lacey, Majesty (Sphere edn, 1978), p 200; Times, 15 Nov 1997; Speed, 10 Jul 1947; Philip Ziegler, Crown and People (1978), pp 82–3; James Lees-Milne, Caves of Ice (Faber edn, 1984), p 246; James Lansdale Hodson, Thunder in the Heavens (1950), pp 61–2; Nick Clarke, The Shadow of a Nation (2003), p 19; Headlam, p 533; Golden, 28 Nov 1947; Hodgson, 18 Jan 1948.

  3. Gaitskell, p 62; Daring to Hope: The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1946–1969 (2000), p 46; Streat, pp 444–5; Harold Nicolson, The Later Years, 1945– 1962: Diaries and Letters, Volume III (1968), pp 142–3, 148.

  4. Nick Tiratsoo, ‘Popular Politics, Affluence and the Labour Party in the 1950s’, in Anthony Gorst et al (eds), Contemporary British History, 1931–1961 (1991), p 53; Uttin, 2 Dec 1947; Speed, 18 Sept 1947, 13 Oct 1947; Lees-Milne, Caves, p 239; Susan Cooper, ‘Snoek Piquante’, in Michael Sissons and Philip French (eds), Age of Austerity (Oxford, 1986), p 40; Listener, 3 Jun 1948.

  5. Daily Express, 16 Apr 1947; BBC WA, Woman’s Hour, 14 Oct 1947; King, 22 May 1948; Martin Westlake, Kinnock (2001), p 16; Heap, 17 Oct 1947; Golden, 13 Jan 1948.

  6. News Chronicle, 19 Apr 1948; The New Yorker, 19 Jun 1948; The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, Volume II (2006), p 198; Raynham, 2 Jul 1947; Melanie Tebbutt, Women’s Talk? (Aldershot, 1995), p 74; Punch, 15/22/29 Oct 1947, 5/12 Nov 1947; British Medical Journal, 29 Nov 1947; Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Austerity in Britain (Oxford, 2000), pp 222–3.

  7. Enid Palmer letters (Department of Documents, Imperial War Museum), 4/14/16/24 Apr 1948; Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska, ‘Consensus and Consumption’, in Harriet Jones and Michael Kandiah (eds), The Myth of Consensus (Basingstoke, 1996), pp 89, 95; Richard Hoggart, The Uses of Literacy (1957), p 37.

  8. Christina Hardyment, Slice of Life (1995), p 31; Hodson, Thunder, p 66; Barnsley Chronicle, 13 Dec 1947; M-O A, Directives for Jan 1948, Replies; Preston, 19 Feb 1948; M-O A, Directives for Jan 1948, Replies; Spivs’ Gazette, Mar 1948. In general on the black market, in addition to Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Austerity in Britain, chap 4, see: Edward Smithies, The Black Economy in England since 1914 (Dublin, 1984); Mark Roodhouse, ‘Popular Morality and the Black Market in Britain, 1939– 55’, in Frank Trentmann and Flemming Just, Food and Conflict in Europe in the Age of the Two World Wars (Basingstoke, 2006).

  9. Kathryn A. Morrison, English Shops and Shopping (New Haven, 2003), pp 239, 275, 276; David Powell, Counter
Revolution (1991), p 66; Store (Feb 1948), p 20; Co-operative News, 17 Jan 1948, 13 Mar 1948; Dictionary of Business Biography, Volume 3 (1985), pp 475–9.

  10. Vogue (Oct 1947), p 37; Pearson Phillips, ‘The New Look’, in Sissons and French (eds), Age of Austerity, pp 129–30, 132–4; The New Yorker, 24 Jan 1948; Langford, 24 Apr 1948; Golden, 28 Apr 1948; Theo Aronson, Princess Margaret (1997), pp 106–7; M-O A, FR 3095.

  11. Angela Partington, ‘The Days of the New Look’, in Jim Fyrth (ed), Labour’s Promised Land? (1995), p 252; Independent, 14 Jan 2002; Carolyn Steedman, Landscape for a Good Woman (1986), pp 12, 28.

  12. Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska, ‘Rationing, Austerity and the Conservative Party Recovery after 1945’, Historical Journal, 37/(1994), p 180; Roy Lewis and Angus Maude, The English Middle Classes (1949), pp 213–14; Economist, 3 Jan 1948; Listener, 3 Jun 1948.

  13. The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh (1976), p 689; C. R. Perry, ‘In Search of H.V. Morton,’ Twentieth Century British History, 10/(1999), p 453; David Kynaston, The City of London, Volume IV (2001), pp 24–5; John Brophy, The Mind’s Eye (1949), pp 64–5.

  14. Hodson, Thunder, pp 16, 29, 83, 216; John Turner, ‘A Land Fit for Tories to Live In’, Contemporary European History, 4/2 (1995), p 193; New Statesman, 12 Jun 1948; Langford, 2 May 1947.

  15. Frances Partridge, Everything to Lose (1985), p 57; Denis Gifford, The Golden Age of Radio (1985), p 179; Terry Hallett, Bristol’s Forgotten Empire (Westbury, 2000), p 155; The Kenneth Williams Diaries (1993), pp 20–21; Aldershot News, 6 Feb 1948; Roger Lewis, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (1994), p 108; Daily Express, 7 May 1948.

  16. Accrington Observer, 14/17 Feb 1948; Rogan Taylor and Andrew Ward, Kicking and Screaming (1995), p 37.

  17. Hodson, Thunder, p 116; Preston, 9 Apr 1948; Gaitskell, p 69.

  18. Langford, 19 Jun 1947; Daily Telegraph, 1 Aug 2002 (Higgins obituary); Horizon (Dec 1947), p 300; News Chronicle, 24 May 1948; Brown, 1/16, 18 Feb 1948; Richard Davenport-Hines, The Pursuit of Oblivion (2001), p 298.

  19. Headlam, pp 552–3; Kenneth O. Morgan, Callaghan (Oxford, 1997), p 85; Sunday Pictorial, 18 Apr 1948; Langford, 4 May 1948; News Chronicle, 24 May 1948; Fenton Bresler, Lord Goddard (1977), p 182; Hartley Shawcross, Life Sentence (1995), p 168.

  20. David Renton, ‘Not Just Economics but Politics as Well’, Labour History Review (Summer 2000), p 174; Richard Weight, Patriots (2002), p 83; Kynaston, City, p 223. .

  21. K. L. Little, Negroes in Britain (1948), p 243; Anthony H. Richmond, Colour Prejudice in Britain (1954), pp 76–7; E. R. Braithwaite, To Sir, With Love (1959), pp 36–49; G. K. Evans, Public Opinion on Colonial Affairs (The Social Survey, Jun 1948), pp ii–iv.

  22. Kathleen Paul, ‘The Politics of Citizenship in Post-War Britain’, Contemporary Record (Winter 1992), pp 464, 467; Clive Harris, ‘Post-war Migration and the Industrial Reserve Army’, in Winston James and Clive Harris (eds), Inside Babylon (1993), pp 21–2.

  23. Randall Hansen, ‘The Politics of Citizenship in 1940s Britain’, Twentieth Century British History, 10/1 (1999), pp 87–8.

  24. David Watson, ‘Research Note’, Historical Studies in Industrial Relations (Mar 1996), p 157; Hansard, 8 Jun 1948, col 1851; Harris, ‘Migration’, pp 23, 24–5; Hansen, ‘Politics’, p 90; Paul, ‘Politics of Citizenship’, p 456.

  25. Star, 22 Jun 1948; Mike Phillips and Trevor Phillips, Windrush (1998), pp 66, 70; Clapham Observer, 2/9 Jul 1948.

  12 A Change in the Terms of Struggle

  1. BBC WA, Woman’s Hour, 22/29 Jun 1948.

  2. British Medical Journal, 16 Nov 1946, 28 Dec 1946; Langford, 6 May 1948; Michael Coveney, The World According to Mike Leigh (1996), p 41; Star, 26 Jun 1948. .

  3. Tom Wildy, ‘The Social and Economic Publicity and Propaganda of the Labour Governments of 1945–51’, Contemporary Record (Summer 1992), pp 45–71; Falkirk Herald, 3 Jul 1948; New Statesman, 3 Jul 1948; Punch, 30 Jun 1948; Janice Winship, ‘Nation Before Family’, in Formations of Nations and People (1984), p 201; Vogue (Jul 1948), p 53.

  4. Tablet, 4 Jul 1998 (Clifford Longley); Steven Fielding et al, ‘England Arise!’ (Manchester, 1995), p 172; Raynham, 27 Apr 1948; Hodgson, 4 Jul 1948; Liverpool Daily Post, 1 Jul 1948.

  5. Phyllis Willmott, Joys and Sorrows (1995), pp 42, 64, 66; J.W.B. Douglas and J. M. Blomfield, Children Under Five (1958), pp 45–51, 57, 69, 99.

  6. Wildy, ‘Publicity and Propaganda’, pp 64–5; The Times, 5 Jul 1948; Preston, 5 Jul 1948.

  7. Daily Mirror, 5 Jul 1948; The Times, 5 Jul 1948; Manchester Guardian, 5 Jul 1948; Heap, 5 Jul 1948; diary of Cyril Leach (at Harrow Local History Centre), 5 Jul 1948.

  8. Star, 5 Jul 1948; Lancashire Daily Post, 5 Jul 1948; The Times, 23 Jun 1998; M-O A, D5353, 5 Jul 1948.

  Smoke in the Valley

  1 What Do You Say?

  1. Daily Mirror, 30 Jul 1948; The Times, 30 Jul 1948; Picture Post, 14 Aug 1948; Daily Telegraph, 3 Feb 1999 (Dearlove letter); The Times, 2 Aug 1948; Andrea Murphy, From the Empire to the Rialto (Birkenhead, 1995), pp 131–49; David Rayvern Allen, Arlott (1994), p 136. On Wooderson, see Independent, 29 Dec 2006, for obituary by Steven Downes, who quotes the Queen’s remark to an official at Wembley Stadium: ‘Of course, we couldn’t have had poor little Sydney.’

  2. M-O A, D 5353, 14 Aug 1948; BBC WA, R9/12/3, 14 Aug 1948; Sporting Life, 19 Aug 1948; Spectator, 26 Mar 2005 (Frank Keating); St John, 28 Aug 1948.

  3. The Times, 8 Sept 1948; Gaitskell, p 84; Scarborough Evening News, 10 Jun 1948; Norman Wisdom, My Turn (2002), pp 140–41; Independent, 29 Oct 1998 (Paul Vallely).

  2 Oh, For a Little Extra Butter!

  1. M-O A, Directives for Oct/Nov 1948, replies from A–B file (men), A–C file (women); Heap, 30 Jul 1948; The New Yorker, 18 Sept 1948; Ferguson, 22 Mar 1949.

  2. Ben Pimlott, Harold Wilson (1992), pp 124–9; Picture Post, 1 Jan 1949; Daring to Hope: The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1946–1969 (2000), p 65; Langford, 21 Nov 1948; Picture Post, 1 Jan 1949; Hodgson, 20 Mar 1949; Coventry Evening Telegraph, 30 Mar 1949; New Yorker, 9 Apr 1949; Haines, 25 Apr 1949; Abrams, Box 63 (‘Ministry of Food Surveys, 1941–64’ file); Uttin, 3 Sept 1949. .

  3. John Gross, ‘The Lynskey Tribunal’, in Michael Sissons and Philip French (eds), Age of Austerity (Oxford, 1986), pp 245–63; New Yorker, 12 Feb 1949; Picture Post, 12 Feb 1949; Langford, 28 Dec 1948; Joyce & Ginnie: The Letters of Joyce Grenfell and Virginia Graham (1997), pp 157–8; Daily Telegraph, 18 Apr 1995, Independent, 19 Apr 1995 (English obituaries).

  4. Daily Express, 26/28 Oct 1948; The Times, 27 Oct 1948, 8 Nov 1948; Channel 4, Classic British Cars, 13 Apr 1999.

  5. Hodgson, 12Dec 1948; Theo Aronson, Princess Margaret (1997), p 110; Middlesbrough Evening Gazette, 20 Aug 1948; Coventry Evening Standard, 27 Apr 1949; James Lees-Milne, Midway on the Waves (Faber edn, 1987), pp 91, 196; Picture Post, 27 Nov 1948; Preston, 15 Nov 1948; Heap, 15 Nov 1948, 16 Dec 1948; Harold Nicolson, The Later Years, 1945–1962: Diaries and Letters, Volume III (1968), p 157.

  6. Picturegoer, 18 Dec 1948; Heap, 11 Dec 1948; Christine Geraghty, British Cinema in the Fifties (2000), pp 136–8; Charles Barr, Ealing Studios (1977), p 77; Hodgson, 6 Feb 1949; Sue Harper and Vincent Porter, Weeping in the Cinema in 1950 (Brighton, 1995); story confirmed by Joan Bakewell.

  7. Sunday Pictorial, 20 Feb 1949; BBC WA, R9/74/1, Aug 1949; M-O A, FR 3106; David Oswell, Television, Childhood and the Home (Oxford, 2002), pp 87–92.

  8. Raynham, 17/20/23/30 Sept 1948; Ted Kavanagh, Tommy Handley (1949), pp 251– 2; Daily Mail, 10 Jan 1949; M-O A, D 5353, 9 Jan 1949; M-O A, Bulletins, New Series No 32, Feb 1950.

  9. Frank Muir and Denis Norden Archive (Special Collections, University of Sussex), Box 3, Take It From Here scripts, second series, ‘Winslow Boy’; Heap, 10 Jan 1949; Preston, 10 Jan 1949; Raynham, 9 Jan 1949; M-O A, D 5353, 9 Jan 1949; Hodgson, 16 Jan 1949; M-O A, Bulletins, New Series No 32, Feb 1950.

  10. Kavanagh, Tommy Handley, pp 9, 16; Hodgson, 16 Jan 1949; M-O A, Bulletins, New Series No 32, Feb
1950.

  11. BBC WA, R34/259; Graham McCann, Frankie Howerd (2004), pp 87–8.

  12. Isaiah Berlin, Flourishing: Letters 1928–1946 (2004), p 304; Vogue (Jul 1948), p 44; The Letters of Kingsley Amis (2000), p 186; Kingsley Amis, Memoirs (1991), pp 102–4; The Letters of Ruth Draper, 1920–1956 (1979), p 310; Lees-Milne, Midway, pp 71, 116, 207.

  13. Peter Hall, Making an Exhibition of Myself (1993), pp 54–5; F. R. Leavis, The Great Tradition (Peregrine edn, 1962), p 10; John Gross, The Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters (1969), pp 270, 281; T. S. Eliot, Notes towards the Definition of Culture (1948), pp 31, 48, 99, 101–2, 106–7, 108; Brian Simon, Education and the Social Order, 1940–1990 (1991), pp 126–9.

  14. Ronald Reagan, My Early Life (1981), pp 208–10; Edmund Morris, Dutch (1999), pp 270–71; Rev. Oliver Leonard Willmott, The Parish Notes of Loders, Dottery and Askerswell, Volume 1 (Shrewsbury, 1996), Jan–Mar 1949.