Family Britain, 1951-1957

by David Kynaston

  p 210; Conservative and Unionist Central Office, Britain Strong and Free (1951), pp 17–18; John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher, Volume One (2000), p 92; Lewis Baston, Reggie (Stroud, 2004), p 83.

  17. Britain Strong, pp 5–6; Joe Moran, ‘Queuing Up in Post-War Britain’, Twentieth Century British History 16/3 (2005), p 287; Michael Caines, ‘Identity Crisis’, Times Literary Supplement, 14 Apr 2006; Deryck Abel, Ernest Benn (1960), p 146.

  18. BBC WA, R9/9/15 – LR/51/2435; Jenkins, Churchill, p 841; Hodgson, 21 Oct 1951; Speed, 17 Oct 1951; Michael Cockerell, Live from Number 10 (1988), pp 11–13; Listener, 25 Oct 1951; Nicholas Parsons, The Straight Man (1994), p 114.

  19. The British Institute of Public Opinion, Behind the Gallup Poll (1951), p 25; Steven Fielding et al, ‘England Arise!’ (Manchester, 1995), p 199; Willie Hamilton, Blood on the Walls (1992), p 72; Luton News, 18 Oct 1951; Bedford Record, 2 Oct 1951, 16 Oct 1951; Benn, pp 155–6; Spectator, 19 Oct 1951.

  20. R. S. Milne and H. C. Mackenzie, Straight Fight (1954), pp 5, 87–8, 108–10; Henry Mayers Hyndman, The Record of an Adventurous Life (1911), pp 244–5.

  21. Fowles, pp 135–6; Chaplin, 7/3/1, 10 Oct 1951; Francis Wyndham and Diana Melly (eds), Jean Rhys, Letters, 1931–1966 (1984), p 90; Dalton, p 556; Moran, Churchill, p 345; Macmillan, pp 108–9.

  22. Evening Standard, 22 Oct 1951; Andrew Barrow, Gossip (1978), p 163; Daily Mail, 22 Oct 1951; The Times, 22 Oct 1951; Evening Standard, 26 Oct 1951; David Bret, George Formby (1999), pp 190–1; Lewis, 23–4 Oct 1951.

  23. Manchester Guardian, 22 Oct 1951; Coventry Evening Telegraph, 23 Oct 1951; Western Morning News, 24 Oct 1951; Luton News, 25 Oct 1951; Margaret Forster, Hidden Lives (1995), pp 204–5.

  24. Speed, 25 Oct 1951; News Chronicle, 25 Oct 1951; Daily Mirror, 25 Oct 1951; Daily Mail, 25 Oct 1951; Haines, 25 Oct 1951; Lewis, 25 Oct 1951; Speed, 25 Oct 1951; Ursula Vaughan Williams, R.V.W. (1964), p 323.

  25. British Institute, Behind the Gallup Poll, p 25; Listener, 1 Nov 1951; Times Literary Supplement, 2 Feb 1996 (Hugo Williams); Cecil Beaton, The Strenuous Years (1973), p 105; Macmillan, p 110; Evening Standard, 26 Oct 1951.

  26. Heap, 26 Oct 1951; Speed, 26 Oct 1951; Guardian, 29 May 2004; Hodgson, 27 Oct 1951.

  27. Anthony Howard, RAB (1987), p 176; Andrew Roberts, Eminent Churchillians (1994), p 252; The Times, 23 Sep 2003.

  28. Hodgson, 27 Oct 1951; Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Austerity in Britain (Oxford, 2000), p 251; James Hinton, ‘Essay in Labour Statistics’, Labour History Review (Winter 1992), p 63; Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Austerity, pp 228–9.

  29. Peter Parker, For Starters (1989), pp 84–5; Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Austerity,

  p 228; John Bonham, The Middle Class Vote (1954), pp 76–7; Nicholas Shakespeare, Bruce Chatwin (1999), p 64.

  3 You Can’t Know Our Relief

  1. Evening Argus (Brighton), 3 Nov 1951; Brighton & Hove Gazette, 10 Nov 1951; Evening Argus, 5 Nov 1951; Colin Brown, Fighting Talk (1997), p 30; Decca Aitkenhead, ‘Prezza on the Couch’, Guardian, 26 May 2008.

  2. New Statesman, 5 Jan 1952; Daily Express, 24 Nov 1951; Robert Colls, ‘Cookson, Chaplin and Common: Three Northern Writers in 1951’, in K.D.M. Snell (ed), The Regional Novel in Britain and Ireland, 1800–1990 (Cambridge, 1998), p 175; Radio Times (Northern edn), 18 Apr 1952; Dave Nicolson, Bobby Thompson (Newcastle, 1994), p 19.

  3. Boxing News, 19 Dec 1951; Dick Hobbs, ‘Ron Kray’, Independent, 18 Mar 1995; Glasgow Herald, 2 Jan 1952, 9 Jan 1952; H. F. Moorhouse, ‘Professional Football and Working Class Culture: English Theories and Scottish Evidence’, Sociological Review (May 1984), pp 301–2; Stephen Wagg, The Football World (1984), p 195; Eric Dunning et al, The Roots of Football Hooliganism (1988), p 136.

  4. Harold Macmillan, Tides of Fortune (1969), p 491; M-O A, D5353, 27 Dec 1951; Haines, 31 Dec 1951; Iona and Peter Opie, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959), p 105.

  5. Hodgson, 27 Oct 1951; Joe Moran, ‘Crossing the Road in Britain, 1931–1976’, Historical Journal (Jun 2006), p 486; Daily Express, 5–6 Dec 1951, 23 Jan 1952; Economist, 1 Dec 1951; Richard Overy, ‘Sir Leonard Percy Lord’, Dictionary of Business Biography, Volume 3 (1985), pp 856–9; Guardian, 16 Apr 2005.

  6. Daily Express, 30 Oct 1951; David Oswell, Television, Childhood and the Home (Oxford, 2002), p 101; King, 11 Nov 1951; BBC WA, R9/74/1, Feb 1952.

  7. Press and Journal (Aberdeen), 12 Nov 1951; Picture Post, 9 Feb 1952; Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing (1983), pp 449–63.

  8. Macmillan, pp 113–14; Anthony Sampson, Macmillan (Penguin edn, 1968), p 97; Anthony Seldon, Churchill’s Indian Summer (1981), p 251; Harriet Jones, ‘“This Is Magnificent!”: 300,000 Houses a Year and the Tory Revival after 1945’, Contemporary British History (Spring 2000), p 111; Macmillan, p 134; A.G.V. Simmonds, ‘Conservative Governments and the Housing Question, 1951–59’, University of Leeds PhD, 1995, pp 92–3; Macmillan, p 134.

  9. Boro’ of West Ham, East Ham, Barking and Stratford Express, 18 Apr 1952; Mark Clapson, Invincible Green Suburbs, Brave New Towns (Manchester, 1992), p 49; Simmonds, ‘Conservative Governments’, p 345; Huw and Connie Rees (eds), The History Makers (Stevenage, 1991), pp 71, 79, 42–3; Steve Humphries and John Taylor, The Making of Modern London, 1945–1985 (1986), p 87; Rees and Rees (eds), History Makers, p 3.

  10. Roy Lewis, Moving to Harlow (Harlow, 1952), unpag; Coventry Evening Telegraph, 7 Dec 1951; Grant Lewison and Rosalind Billingham, Coventry New Architecture (Warwick, 1969), p 129; Coventry Standard, 31 Aug 1951; Andrew Saint, ‘Fred Pooley’, Guardian, 24 Mar 1998; Municipal Journal, 22 May 1953; Coventry Evening Telegraph, 4 Jun 1952; Bill Lancaster and Tony Mason, ‘Society and Politics in 20th Century Coventry’, in Lancaster and Mason (eds), Life and Labour in a 20th Century City (Coventry, c. 1986, pp 351–2. For a notably positive assessment of Tile Hill, see Nicholas Bullock, Building the Post-War World (2002), p 238.

  11. Hampshire Telegraph, 9 Feb 1951, 14 Mar 1952; Lorna Sage, Bad Blood (2000), pp 89–102.

  12. Nick Tiratsoo et al, Urban Reconstruction in Britain and Japan 1945–1955 (Luton, 2002), chap 4.

  13. Becky E. Conekin, The Autobiography of a Nation (Manchester, 2003), p 72; New Statesman, 16 Jun 1951; Percy Johnson-Marshall, Rebuilding Cities (Edinburgh, 1966), p 231; New Statesman, 16 Jun 1951; Architectural Review (Dec 1951), p 363; Tiratsoo et al, Urban Reconstruction, p 32; John Westergaard and Ruth Glass, ‘A Profile of Lansbury’, Town Planning Review (Apr 1954), pp 39–41; Tiratsoo et al, Urban Reconstruction, p 34; Guardian, 11 Jul 2001.

  14. Minutes of the Corporation of Glasgow, Nov 1951–May 1952, p 1801; Nick Tiratsoo, ‘The Reconstruction of Blitzed British Cities: Myths and Reality’, Contemporary British History (Spring 2000), p 36; Peter Mitchell, Memento Mori (Otley, 1990), p 94; BBC WA, Any Questions?, 27 Jun 1952; Simmonds, ‘Conservative Governments’, p 428; BBC WA, Any Questions?, 27 Jun 1952.

  15. Diary of John McGarry (Special Collections, University of Sussex), 8 Jan 1952–6 Feb 1952; Andrew Barrow, Gossip (Pan edn, 1980), p 166; Daily Mirror, 26 Jan 1952.

  16. M-O A, TC14/1/L, 6 Feb 1952, D5353, 6 Feb 1952; Haines, 6 Feb 1952; Raynham, 6 Feb 1952; St John, 6 Feb 1952; Crossman, p 71.

  17. BBC WA, R9/13/77; M-O A, D5353, 6 Feb 1952; Lewis, 6 Feb 1952; McGarry, 6 Feb 1952; New Yorker, 16 Feb 1952; Heap, 7 Feb 1952; Macmillan, p 141; Preston, 8 Feb 1952.

  18. Heap, 8 Feb 1952; Raynham, 8 Feb 1952; Crossman, 15 Feb 1952; Crossman, p 73; M-O A, D5353, 13 Feb 1952; Crossman, p 74; Leonard Miall (ed), Richard Dimbleby, Broadcaster (1966), p 76; Barbara Pym Papers (Bodleian Library, Oxford), Ms 42, fol 11, 13 Feb 1952; Angela Potter (ed), Shared Histories (Athens, GA, 2006), pp 275–6; M-O A, D5353, 12 Feb 1952.

  19. New Yorker, 23 Feb 1952; Frances Partridge, Everything to Lose (Phoenix edn, 1999), p 151; Haines, 15 Feb 1952; Speed, 16 Feb 1952; New Yorker, 23 Feb 1952; BBC WA, R9/9/16–LR/52/670; Raynham, 16 Feb 1952.

  4 Hardly Practicable

  1. Hilton, Box 17, London County Council file.

  2. Listener, 22 No
v 1951; Michael Kandiah, ‘Conservative Leaders, Strategy – and “Consensus”? 1945–1964’, in Harriet Jones and Michael Kandiah (eds), The Myth of Consensus (Basingstoke, 1996), pp 71–2; A.G.V. Simmonds, ‘Conservative Governments and the Housing Question, 1951–1959’, University of Leeds PhD, 1995, p 8; Harriet Jones, ‘The Cold War and the Santa Claus Syndrome: Dilemmas in Conservative Social Policy-Making, 1945–1957, in Martin Francis and Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska (eds), The Conservatives and British Society, 1880–1990 (Cardiff, 1996), p 248. Kandiah, ‘Conservative Leaders’, p 70; John Colville, The Fringes of Power: Volume Two (Sceptre edn, 1987), p 298; Alan Booth, ‘New Revisionists and the Keynesian Era in British Economic Policy’, Economic History Review (May 2001), pp 355–6; Neil Rollings, ‘“Poor Mr Butskell: A Short life, Wrecked by Schizophrenia”?’, Twentieth Century British History 5/2 (1994), pp 197–8; Lord Butler, The Art of the Possible (1971), p 163; R. C. Whiting, ‘Income Tax, the Working Class and Party Politics, 1948–52’, Twentieth Century British History 8/2 (1997), pp 208–12; Financial Times, 12 Mar 1952; Robert Rhodes James (ed), Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon (1967), p 568.

  3. Helpful accounts of ROBOT include: Correlli Barnett, The Verdict of Peace (2001), pp 152–76; Jim Bulpitt and Peter Burnham, ‘Operation Robot and the British Political Economy in the Early-1950s: The Politics of Market Strategies’, Contemporary British History (Spring 1999), pp 1–31; Butler, Art, pp 160–62; Alec Cairncross, Years of Recovery (1985), chap 9; John Fforde, The Bank of England and Public Policy, 1941–1958 (Cambridge, 1992), pp 426–51; Peter Hennessy, Having It So Good (2006), pp 199–217; Anthony Howard, RAB (1987), pp 185–9; Scott Kelly, ‘Ministers Matter: Gaitskell and Butler at Odds over Convertibility, 1950–52’, Contemporary British History (Winter 2000), pp 40–49; Nigel Lawson, ‘Robot and the Fork in the Road’, Times Literary Supplement, 21 Jan 2005; Donald MacDougall, Don and Mandarin (1987), pp 85–108; Keith Middlemas, Power, Competition and the State, Volume 1 (1986), pp 199–204; Stephen J. Procter, ‘Floating Convertibility: The Emergence of the Robot Plan, 1951–1952’, Contemporary Record (Summer 1993), pp 24–43.

  4. Barnett, Verdict, p 157; David Kynaston, The City of London, Volume IV (2001), p 48; MacDougall, Don, p 88; Kelly, p 47; Macmillan, p 149; Lawson, ‘Robot’; Kynaston, City of London, p 51.

  5. Alan Deacon and Jonathan Bradshaw, Reserved for the Poor (Oxford, 1983), p 53; Listener, 14 Feb 1952, 17 Apr 1952; Financial Times, 7 Mar 2001; Richard M. Titmuss, ‘Social Administration in a Changing Society’, British Journal of Sociology (Sep 1951), pp 193, 197; R. M. Titmuss, ‘The Hospital and Its Patients’, in James Farndale (ed), Trends in the National Health Service (Oxford, 1964), pp 273–82; Jim Kincaid, ‘Richard Titmuss’, in Paul Barker (ed), Founders of the Welfare State (1984), p 119.

  6. Hansard, 27 Mar 1952, cols 883–6; Robert Shepherd, Iain Macleod (1994), pp 73–7; John Vaizey, In Breach of Promise (1983), p 40; Rhodes James (ed), Chips, p 568.

  7. Benn, p 160; Crossman, pp 47–8; Picture Post, 22 Mar 1952; Denis Healey, The Time of My Life (Penguin edn, 1990), p 150.

  8. Observer, 24 Apr 2005; Times Literary Supplement, 26 Dec 1997; Alan Thompson, The Day Before Yesterday (1971), p 147; New Statesman, 12 Apr 1952; Times Literary Supplement, 4 Apr 1952; Michael Foot, Aneurin Bevan: Volume 2 (Granada edn, 1975), p 365; Aneurin Bevan, In Place of Fear (Quartet edn, 1978), pp 200, 203.

  9. C.A.R. Crosland, ‘The Transition from Capitalism’, in R.H.S. Crossman (ed), New Fabian Essays (1952), pp 33–68; BBC WA, Any Questions?, 26 Oct 1951; Vaizey, In Breach, pp 95–6. In addition to two biographies – Susan Crosland, Tony Crosland (1982), and Kevin Jefferys, Anthony Crosland (1999) – see also Jeremy Nuttall’s work on Crosland, including ‘Tony Crosland and the Many Falls and Rises of British Social Democracy’, Contemporary British History (Winter 2004), pp 52–79.

  10. Dalton, p 575; Abrams, Box 67, ‘The Future of the Labour Party, 1952–1959’.

  11. Crosland, ‘Transition’, p 59; Martin Daunton, Just Taxes (Cambridge, 2002), p 229; E.H.H. Green, Ideologies of Conservatism (Oxford, 2002), pp 219–20; Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Austerity in Britain (Oxford, 2000), p 236; Crosland, ‘Transition’, p 59; R. T. McKenzie, ‘Laski and the Social Basis of the Constitution’, British Journal of Sociology (Sep 1952), p 263.

  12. Vaizey, In Breach, p 87; Jeremy Nuttall, ‘Labour Revisionism and Qualities of Mind and Character, 1931–79’, English Historical Review (Jun 2005), p 679; David Donnison, ‘Social Policy Since Titmuss’, Journal of Social Policy (Apr 1979), pp 146–7; Robert J. Wybrow, Britain Speaks Out, 1937–87 (Basingstoke, 1989), p 33.

  13. Michael Paris, ‘Red Menace! Russian and British Juvenile Fiction’, Contemporary British History (Jun 2005), pp 127–8; Amis, p 287; Dianne Kirby, ‘Ecclesiastical McCarthyism: Cold War Repression in the Church of England’, Contemporary British History (Jun 2005), pp 196–201; Eric Hobsbawm, Interesting Times (2002), pp 191, 230–31; Times Literary Supplement, 12 Dec 1952, 19 Dec 1952, 2 Jan 1953; C. H. Rolph, Kingsley (1973), pp 311–14.

  14. John Callaghan, ‘Industrial Militancy, 1945–79: The Failure of the British Road to Socialism?’, Twentieth Century British History 15/4 (2004), p 390; Abrams, Box 57; Picture Post, 20 Sep 1952, 27 Sep 1952, 4 Oct 1952, 11 Oct 1952; Richard Stevens, ‘Cold War Politics: Communism and Anti-Communism in the Trade Unions’, in Alan Campbell et al (eds), British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics: Volume One (Aldershot, 1999), pp 175–6, 183.

  15. Daily Herald, 29 Aug 1952; Gaitskell, pp 317–18; John Callaghan, ‘The Left and the “Unfinished Revolution”: Bevanites and Soviet Russia in the 1950s’, Contemporary British History (Autumn 2001), pp 68–70; Bevan, In Place, p 163; A. J. Davies, To Build a New Jerusalem (1992), pp 188–9.

  16. Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (1997), pp 52–4; Raphael Samuel, The Lost World of British Communism (2006), pp 135–6.

  5 What Will Teacher Say?

  1. Hazel Holt, A Lot to Ask (1990), p 160; Kathleen Tynan (ed), Kenneth Tynan, Letters, (New York, 1994), p 185; New Statesman, 15 Mar 1952; BBC2, Changing Stages, 26 Nov 2000; New Statesman, 28 Jun 1952; Punch, 2 Jul 1952; Charles Duff, The Lost Summer (1995), p 154; Geoffrey Wansell, Terence Rattigan (1995), p 226; Sam Walters, ‘Rodney Ackland’, Independent, 7 Dec 1991.

  2. BBC WA, R9/9/16–LR/52/941; William Smethurst, The Archers (1996), pp 37–8; Listener, 27 Mar 1952; John Clay, R.D. Laing (1996), pp 43–50.

  3. Jeffery Weeks, Coming Out (Quartet edn, 1990), p 159; Richard Davenport-Hines, Sex, Death and Punishment (1990), p 301; Tony Gould, Inside Outsider (Allison & Busby edn, 1993), p 97; Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing (Vintage edn, 1992), chap 8; ‘George Williams’, The Times, 28 Apr 1995; Independent, 5 May 1999 (Ann Treneman); Alison Macleod, The Death of Uncle Joe (Woodbridge, 1997), p 28; Barbara Pym, Excellent Women (Pan edn, 1989), p 25; The Times, 7 Feb 2001 (Benedict Nightingale); New Statesman, 2 Aug 1952; Sunday Pictorial, 25 May 1952, 1 Jun 1952, 8 Jun 1952.

  4. Heap, 12 May 1952; Michael Banton, White and Coloured (1959), p 157; Manchester Guardian, 7 Jun 1952; John Barnes, Ahead of His Age (1979), pp 427–8; The Times, 24 Jul 1952; Picture Post, 6 Sep 1952; Guardian, 18 Jun 2005 (Ian Jack), 16 Feb 2005 (Hugh Muir); Bob Carter et al, ‘The 1951–55 Conservative Government and the Racialization of Black Immigration’, Immigrants & Minorities (Nov 1987), pp 341–2; Independent, 16 Sep 1989 (Patrick Matthews).

  5. Picture Post, 19 Apr 1952; Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power (1995), p 79; Grantham Journal, 23 May 1952; William Shawcross, Rupert Murdoch (1992), pp 71–2.

  6. Preston, 25 Feb 1952; Langford, 11 Jun 1952, 13 Jun 1952; George H. Gallup (ed), The Gallup International Public Opinion Polls: Great Britain 1937–1975: Volume One (New York, 1976), p 272; Robert J. Wybrow, Britain Speaks Out, 1937–87 (Basingstoke, 1989), p 35; Haines, 26 Jun 1952.

  7. New Statesman, 26 Apr 1952; Merthyr Express, 14 Jun 1952, 24 May 1952, 14 Jun 1952; Lotte Kuhler (ed), Within Four Walls (New York, 2000), pp 195–8; Dartington Hall Trust Archives, LKE/
G/35, 3 Jul 1952; Chaplin, 7/3/1, 21 Jul 1952.

  8. William Osgerby, ‘“One for the Money, Two for the Show”: Youth, Consumption and Hegemony in Britain 1945–70, University of Sussex PhD, 1992, p 96; Merthyr Express, 3 May 1952; Picture Post, 17 May 1952; John Springhall, ‘Horror Comics: The Nasties of the 1950s’, History Today (Jul 1994), p 11; Wybrow, Britain Speaks, p 35; M-O A, D5353, 14 Jun 1952.

  9. Crossman, pp 76–7; The Times, 25 Mar 1952, 27 Mar 1952, 3 Apr 1952, 9 Apr 1952; Michael Cockerill, Live from Number 10 (1988), pp 25–6; Lord Moran, Winston Churchill (1966), p 390; The Times, 12 Jun 152; Anthony Sampson, Anatomy of Britain (1962), pp 606–7; Crossman, p 110; Wybrow, Britain Speaks, pp 35–6; The Times, 12 Jun 1952; BBC WA, R9/4, 19 May 1952.

  10. John Karter, Lester (1992), p 24; John Arlott, Fred (Coronet edn, 1974), chap 5; ‘Sir Harry Llewellyn, Bt’, The Times, 16 Nov 1999; John Colville, The Fringes of Power, Volume Two (Sceptre edn, 1987), p 310; Kathleen Tynan, The Life of Kenneth Tynan (Methuen edn, 1988), p 98; Blackpool Gazette & Herald, 9 Aug 1952; C. P. Lee, ‘The Lancashire Shaman’, in Stephen Wagg (ed), Because I Tell A Joke Or Two (1998), pp 46–7.

  11. Macmillan, pp 181–2; David Sandison, The Golden Years: 1952 (1996), p 39; Macmillan, p 183.

  12. Frank MacShane (ed), Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler (1981), pp 320, 327; John Betjeman, First and Last Loves (Grey Arrow edn, 1960), pp 11, 14–15; Bevis Hillier, John Betjeman: New Fame, New Love (2002), pp 483, 485; ‘Law Report’, Independent, 4 Mar 1998; Daily Telegraph, 25 Feb 1998 (Terence Shaw).

  13. BBC WA, R9/4, Mar 1952; Daily Telegraph, 12 Jul 2002; Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus (eds), The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Volume I (1968), p 539. In general on Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School, see also the obituaries of Campion in The Times/Guardian, 11 Jul 2002, and Independent, 13 Jul 2002.

  14. Times Educational Supplement, 25 Jan 1952, 1 Feb 1952, 8 Feb 1952, 7 Mar 1952; Picture Post, 30 Aug 1952.