Family Britain, 1951-1957

by David Kynaston

  3. Winston Fletcher, Powers of Persuasion (Oxford, 2008), p 31; Christina Hardyment, Slice of Life (1995), p 53; Homes and Gardens, Feb 1954, p 1; Picture Post, 25 Feb 1956; Fletcher, Powers, p 35; Mark Robinson, 100 Greatest TV Ads (2000), pp 48, 27; News Chronicle, 22 Oct 1956.

  4. Martin, 6 Mar 1956; Miriam Akhtar and Steve Humphries, The Fifties and Sixties (2001), pp 119–20; John Burnett, A Social History of Housing, 1815–1970 (Newton Abbott, 1978), p 300; Encounter, Jun 1956, p 12; Financial Times, 10 Feb 2001 (Alice Rawsthorn); The Times, 16 Jul 2004 (Lucia van der Post); Picture Post, 8 Oct 1956; Sally MacDonald and Julia Porter, Putting on the Style (1990), ‘Traditional Values’ section; M-O A, Bulletin No 49, Mar/Jun 1953, ‘Furnishing’; Encounter, Jun 1956, p 12.

  5. Paul Atkinson, ‘Do It Yourself: Democracy and Design’, Journal of Design History, 2006 (19/1), p 6; Carol Kennedy, ICI (1986), p 118; James Obelkevich, ‘Consumption’, in James Obelkevich and Peter Catterall (eds), Understanding British Society (1994), p 147; Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, Advertising in Action (1962), pp 203–4; David Jeremiah, Architecture and Design for the Family, 1900–70 (Manchester, 2000), p 165; Andrew Jackson, ‘Labour as Leisure – the Mirror Dinghy and DIY Sailors’, Journal of Design History, 2006 (19/1), p 59; Jeremiah, Architecture, p 165; Practical Householder, Dec 1956, pp 32, 38, 43, 49; Robert Opie, The 1950s Scrapbook (1998), pp 12–13.

  6. Picture Post, 27 Feb 1954; David E. Roberts, ‘Sir Charles Colston’, in David Jeremy (ed), Dictionary of Business Biography, Vol 1 (1984), p 756; David L. Wakefield, The Hoover Story in Merthyr Tydfil (Merthyr Tydfil, c. 1977), pp 6–7; Opie, Scrapbook, p 16; Obelkevich, ‘Consumption’, p 145; John Davies, ‘Wales in the Nineteen-sixties’, Llafour, 1987 (4/4), p 83; David Blunkett, On a Clear Day (1995), p 40; Hardyment, Slice, pp 41–2.

  7. Nick Smurthwaite, ‘Kenneth Lo’, Independent, 16 Aug 1995; Times Literary Supplement, 26 Nov 1999 (Arabella Boxer); Jeremiah, Architecture, p 172; Joe Moran, Queuing for Beginners (2007), p 152; M-O A, Bulletin No 50, Mar 1954, p 15; Illustrated, 21 Jan 1956; Independent, 19 Mar 1997 (P. T. Meard); Harris and Seldon, Advertising, pp 169–70; Financial Times, 12 Oct 1959; Reynolds News, 24 Feb 1957; Haines, 3 Aug 1956; ‘Sir John Eastwood’, The Times, 15 Aug 1995; Information from Gisela Hunt.

  8. Tim O’Sullivan, ‘Television Memories and Cultures of Viewing, 1950–65’, in John Corner (ed), Popular Television in Britain (1991), p 161; Twiggy Lawson, Twiggy (1997), p 15; O’Sullivan, ‘Television’, p 167; Dennis Potter, The Changing Forest (Minerva edn, 1996), p 9; The Times, 4 Nov 2004 (Clive Davis); Carole Klein, Doris Lessing (2000), p 147; Doris Lessing, Walking in the Shade (1997), p 92; Michael Young and Peter Willmott, Family and Kinship in East London (Pelican edn, 1962), p 143; Crown Street Survey (University of Liverpool, Special Collections), D416/1/23.

  9. A. M. Carr-Saunders et al, A Survey of Social Conditions in England and Wales (1958), pp 245–6; Young and Willmott, Family, p 24; Carr-Saunders, pp 247–8, 242; ‘Frank Berni’, Daily Telegraph, 12 Jul 2000; Paul Levy, ‘Aldo Berni’, Independent, 20 Oct 1997; Peter Frost, ‘Sam Alper’, Independent, 11 Oct 2002; Geraldine Wilson, ‘Alexander Plunket Greene’, Guardian, 10 May 1990.

  10. Ruth I. Johns, St Ann’s, Nottingham (Warwick, 2002), p 54; Crown Street Survey, D416/1/23; Carlo Morelli, ‘Constructing a Balance between Price and Non-Price Competion in British Multiple Food Retailing, 1954–64’, Business History, Apr 1998, p 47; Geoff Phillips, When We Were Kids (Durham City, 2001), p 43; Morelli, ‘Constructing’, p 47; Picture Post, 10 Sep 1955; Marcus Sieff, Don’t ask the price (1986), pp 169–70.

  11. Penelope Mortimer, About Time Too (1993), pp 43–4; Sonia Ashmore, ‘Extinction and Evolution: Department Stores in London’s West End, 1945–1982’, London Journal, Jun 2006, pp 48–9; M-O A, TC24/9/D; Bill Lancaster, The Department Store (1995), pp 196–7.

  12. Jeremiah, Architecture, p 172; Morelli, ‘Constructing’, p 49; M-O A, TC78/3/B; Oliver Marriott, The Property Boom (1967), p 237; Kathryn A. Morrison, English Shops and Shopping (New Haven, 2003), p 284; W. G. McClelland, ‘The Supermarket and Society’, Sociological Review, Jul 1962, p 134; M-O A, TC78/3/B.

  13. Glasgow Herald, 25 Jun 1956; M-O A, D5353, 29 Feb 1956; Evening Citizen, 18 Jun 1956; C.A.R. Crosland, The Future of Socialism (1956), p 518; London Review of Books, 24 Jan 2002.

  14 A Pretty Mess

  1. Clarissa Eden, A Memoir (2007), p 235; Macmillan, pp 578–9; Roy Greenslade, Press Gang (2003), pp 131–3; Brian Brivati, Hugh Gaitskell (1996), p 260; M-O A, D5353, 2 Aug 1956; Fowles, p 378; Sir Billy Butlin, The Billy Butlin Story (1982), p 223; David Owen, Time to Declare (1991), pp 39–40; Robin Day, Grand Inquisitor (1989), p 91; Greenslade, Press Gang, p 133; Corelli Barnett, The Verdict of Peace (2001), pp 493–4.

  2. Daily Mirror, 30 Oct 1956; Colin Clark, The Prince, the Showgirl and Me (1995), pp 188–9; New Statesman, 3 Nov 1956; Heap, 30 Oct 1956; Daily Sketch, 31 Oct 1956; New Statesman, 3 Nov 1956; Manchester Guardian, 31 Oct 1956; Benn, pp 194–5; Nigel Nicolson (ed), Harold Nicolson: The Later Years, 1945–1962: Diaries and Letters, Volume III (1968), p 312; Mark Pottle (ed), Daring to Hope: The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1946–1969 (2000), p 173; Streat, p 847; Janie Hampton (ed), Joyce & Ginnie (1997), p 216.

  3. Daily Sketch, 1 Nov 1956; Daily Mirror, 1 Nov 1956; News Chronicle, 1 Nov 1956; The Times, 1 Nov 1956; New Yorker, 10 Nov 1956; Lewis Baston, Reggie (Stroud, 2004), p 114; Lewis, 1 Nov 1956; St John, 1 Nov 1956; Heap, 1 Nov 1956; M-O A, D5353, 1 Nov 1956; Martin, 1 Nov 1956; Streat, p 848; Manchester Guardian, 5 Nov 1956 (Nicolas Walter et al); Henry Hardy and Jennifer Holmes (eds), Isaiah Berlin, Enlightening: Letters 1946–1960 (2009), p 547; Manchester Guardian, 2 Nov 1956; Aurelia Schober Plath (ed), Sylvia Plath, Letters Home (1976), p 282.

  4. Daily Worker, 26 Oct 1956; Reasoner, Nov 1956, Supplement, pp 1–2; Amis, pp 489–91.

  5. Manchester Guardian, 2 Nov 1956; Tribune, 2 Nov 1956; New Statesman, 3 Nov 1956; Spectator, 2 Nov 1956; Economist, 2 Nov 1956; Preston, 2 Nov 1956; Hampton (ed), Joyce & Ginnie, p 218; M-O A, D5353, 2 Nov 1956; Haines, 2 Nov 1956; Brian Thompson, Clever Girl (2007), p 184; BBC WA, Any Questions?, 2 Nov 1956.

  6. Daily Sketch, 3 Nov 1956; Daily Mirror, 3 Nov 1956; Crossman, p 538; Listener, 8 Nov 1956; Nicolson, p 314; Benn, p 200; Crossman, pp 538–9; Raynham, 3 Nov 1956; Preston, 3 Nov 1956; M-O A, D5353, 3 Nov 1956; Amis, p 491.

  7. Observer, 4 Nov 1956; Daily Mirror, 5 Nov 1956; Manchester Guardian, 5 Nov 1956; D. R. Thorpe, Eden (2003), p 527; The Times, 18 Feb 2003 (Anthony Howard); Benn, pp 201–2; Listener, 8 Nov 1956; Tony Shaw, ‘Cadogan’s Last Fling: Sir Alexander Cadogan, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC’, Contemporary British History, Summer 1999, p 140; Barnett, Verdict, p 496.

  8. Manchester Guardian, 5 Nov 1956; Bonham Carter, p 174; Daily Mirror, 5 Nov 1956; Reasoner, Nov 1956, pp 1–2; Daily Worker, 5 Nov 1956.

  9. Daily Mail, 5 Nov 1956; News Chronicle, 5 Nov 1956; Raynham, 5 Nov 1956; Russell Davies (ed), The Kenneth Williams Diaries (1993), p 127; Daily Mirror, 6 Nov 1956.

  10. Daily Mail, 6 Nov 1956; Martin, 5 Nov 1956; Pete Frame, The Restless Generation (2007), p 150; Caroline Moorehead, Sidney Bernstein (1984), pp 252–3; Benn, p 205; John Sutherland, The Boy Who Loved Books (2007), pp 161–2.

  11. News Chronicle, 6 Nov 1956; Manchester Guardian, 6 Nov 1956; Philip Snow, Stranger and Brother (1982), p 112; Robert Cooper, ‘A Weak Sister? Macmillan, Suez and the British Economy, July to November 1956’, Contemporary British History, Sep 2008, p 309; Benn, p 208; Crossman, p 541; Tony Shaw, ‘Eden and the BBC During the 1956 Suez Crisis: A Myth Re-examined’, Twentieth Century British History, 1995 (6/3), p 340; Haines, 6 Nov 1956; Nicolson (ed), Diaries,

  p 317; M-O A, D5353, 6 Nov 1956.

  12. Anton Rippon, A Derby Boy (Stroud, 2007), p 60; Harvey Cole, ‘Public Opinion and the Suez Crisis’, Fabian Journal, Mar 1957, pp 10–11; Yorkshire Post, 8 Nov 1956; Manchester Guardian, 7 Nov 1956, 12 Nov 1956; Barnett, Verdict, p 652; Malcolm Hayes (ed), T
he Selected Letters of William Walton (2002), pp 286–7; John Ramsden, The Age of Churchill and Eden, 1940–1957 (Harlow, 1995), pp 313–14; New Statesman, 10 Nov 1956.

  13. New Statesman, 22 Sep 1956; Daily Worker, 9 Nov 1956, 16 Nov 1956; New Statesman, 24 Nov 1956; Tom Steel, ‘Llew Gardner’, Independent, 26 Nov 1990; Jim Roche Papers (Ruskin College, Oxford), Mss 51/20; A. J. Avis, To Build a New Jerusalem (1992), p 196; Jean McCrindle, ‘The Hungarian Uprising and a Young British Communist’, History Workshop Journal, Autumn 2008, p 198.

  14. Greenslade, Press Gang, pp 136–7; Brenda Maddox, Maggie (2003), p 64; Richard Cockett, ‘The Observer and the Suez Crisis’, Contemporary Record, Summer 1991, pp 27–30; Richard Davenport-Hines (ed), Letters from Oxford: Hugh Trevor-Roper to Bernard Berenson (2006), p 210.

  15. Independent, 9 Sep 1997 (Kate Watson-Smyth); Hampton (ed), Joyce & Ginnie,

  p 222; New Yorker, 12 Jan 1957; Independent, 15 Jan 2003 (Robert Fisk).

  16. David Kynaston, The Financial Times (1988), pp 248–51; Encounter, Jan 1957, pp 38–44; Turtle, Nov–Dec 1956; New Yorker, 10 Nov 1956; Crossman, p 572.

  17. John Amis, Amiscellany (1985), p 114; The Times, 14 Nov 1956; Daily Mirror, 21 Nov 1956; Moorehead, Bernstein, p 266; Amis, p 486; St John, 9 Dec 1956; Clive Ellis, Fabulous Fanny Cradock (Stroud, 2007), pp 73–6; Fowles, p 385; Heap, 25 Dec 1956; Mark Robinson, 100 Greatest TV Ads (2000), p 84; Travis Elborough, The Bus We Loved (2005), pp 69–71; Tony Mason, ‘Stanley Matthews’, in Richard Holt (ed), Sport and the Working Class in Modern Britain (Manchester, 1990),

  p 159.

  18. Robert J. Wybrow, Britain Speaks Out, 1937–87 (Basingstoke, 1989), p 48; Nicolson (ed), Diaries, p 328; M-O A, D5353, 9 Jan 1957; John Campbell, Pistols at Dawn (2009), pp 266–8; New Yorker, 26 Jan 1957; M-O A, D5353, 10 Jan 1957; Evening Standard, 10 Jan 1957; Haines, 10 Jan 1957.

  Afterword

  1. Woman, 5 Jan 1957.

  2. Woman and Shopping, Jan/Feb 1957, pp 42–45.

  Acknowledgements

  I am grateful to the following for kindly allowing me to reproduce copyright material: Evelyn Abrams (Mark Abrams); Ouida V. Ascroft (Florence Speed); Lady Diana Baer (Mollie Panter-Downes); Joan Bakewell; BBC Written Archives Centre; Birmingham Libraries and Archives (extract from the diaries of Mary King, collection reference MS1547); Ken Blakemore (Sunnyside Down); Michael Bloch (James Lees-Milne); Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd (extract from An Immaculate Mistake © 1991 Paul Bailey); Veronica Bowater (Vere Hodgson); Alan Brodie Representation (The Diaries of Noël Coward, on behalf of NC Aventales AG, successor in the title to the Estate of Noël Coward); Rene and Michael Chaplin (Sid Chaplin); Jonathan Clowes Ltd (Letters copyright © 2001 Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim copyright © 1953 Kingsley Amis, on behalf of the Literary Estate of Kingsley Amis; extract from The Reasoner copyright © Doris Lessing 1956, on behalf of Doris Lessing, extract from In Pursuit of the English copyright © Doris Lessing 1960, on behalf of Doris Lessing, extract from Walking in the Shade copyright © Doris Lessing 1998); Susan Crosland (New Fabian Essays and The Future of Socialism); Virginia Crossman (Richard Crossman); Alan Crowe (Carole Anne Stafford); Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London (on behalf of the Trustees of the Mass-Observation Archive, copyright © Trustees of the Mass-Observation Archive; extract from England, Half English copyright © Colin MacInnes 1961, on behalf of the Estate of Colin MacInnes); Renée Daly (Lawrence Daly); The Dartington Hall Trust Archive; Hunter Davies; Norman Dennis; Peter Dunn (Cyril Dunn); Faber & Faber Ltd (extract from Untold Stories by Alan Bennett; extract from Free Association by Stephen Berkoff; Selected Letters of Philip Larkin copyright © The Estate of Philip Larkin; Letters Home copyright © The Estate of Aurelia Plath); Margaret Fenton (Sir Frederic Osborn); Margaret Forster; Enid Grant (Enid Palmer); Rachel Gross (Geoffrey Gorer); HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (Bad Blood © Lorna Sage 2001; The Kenneth Williams Diaries © Kenneth Williams 1993, 1994); Pamela Hendicott (Judy Haines); Hazel Holt (Barbara Pym); Steve Humphries (The Making of Modern London, 1945–85; A Century of Childhood; The Fifties and Sixties); Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Lord Hinton of Bankside); Islington Local History Centre (Gladys Langford); Ian Jack (Before the Oil Ran Out: Britain 1977–87, 1987; The Country Formerly Known as Great Britain: Writings 1989–2009, 2009); Dan Jacobson; Ruth I. Johns (St Ann’s Nottingham: Inner-city Voices, Plowright Press 2002, 2006); Little, Brown Book Group Ltd (Ricky by Ricky Tomlinson); Ione Lee (Judy Haines); The Marvell Press (extract from ‘Born Yesterday’ by Philip Larkin from The Less Deceived); John McGarry; Jamie Muir and Denis Norden (Frank Muir and Denis Norden Archive); John Murray Ltd (The Boy Who Loved Books by John Sutherland); News Group Newspapers Limited Archive (Papers of the John Hilton Bureau); The Harold Nicolson Estate; Ingrid Pollard (Sylvan Pollard Estate); Allan Preston (Kenneth Preston); The Random House Group Ltd (extract from White City by Donald James Wheal, published by Century; extract from Years of Hope by Tony Benn, published by Hutchinson; extract from What’s It All About? by Cilla Black, published by Ebury Press; extract from Who’s Crazee Now? by Noddy Holder, published by Ebury Press; extract from The Changing Forest by Dennis Potter, published by Secker & Warburg; extract from Jacky Daydream by Jacqueline Wilson, published by Doubleday; extract from Coming Home by John Betjeman published by Vintage); Marian Ray and Robin Raynham (Marian Raynham); Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd (Diaries 1939–1972 by Frances Partridge copyright © 1999 Frances Partridge) Anton Rippon (A Derby Boy); Basil Streat (Sir Raymond Streat); Valerie Tedder; Brian Thompson (Clever Girl ); Peter Townsend; Sylvia Turtle (Florence Turtle); Roxana and Matthew Tynan (The Life of Kenneth Tynan by Kathleen Tynan, theatre writings, letters); Phyllis Willmott; Jennifer Worth; Toby Young (Michael Young).

  I am indebted, in many different ways, to archivists, librarians, fellow-historians, friends and acquaintances. They include: Mark Aston; Michael Banton; Paul Barker; Peter Bevington; Piers Brendon; Sophie Bridges; John Campbell; Judith Downie; Elisabeth and Peter Dunn; Eamon Dyas; Helen Ford; Laura Gardner; Kate Gavron; Geoffrey Goodman; John Gross; Janie Hampton; Lynsey Hanley; Sue Harper; Pam Hendicott; Dick Holt; Felix Lancashire; Roy Lumb; Nicholas Mays; Joe Moran; Blake Morrison; Andrew Motion; Juliet Nicolson; Jonathan Oates; Erin O’Neill; Robert Opie; Jack Ozanne; Stanley Page; Michael Passmore; Alison Ravetz; Andrew Riley; John Roberts; John Southall; Todd Swift; David Taylor; John Wakefield; Andy Ward; Yvonne Widger; Melanie Wood; Ken Worpole. At the Special Collections (including the Mass-Observation Archive) at the University of Sussex, I am grateful for their help to Fiona Courage, Dorothy Sheridan and the staff, including Catrina Hey, Jessica Scantlebury and Karen Watson. The London Library remains London’s most congenial, inspiriting library, and I am grateful to the staff for all their constructive kindness over the years. This book could not have been written without ready access to the hard-copy local newspaper collection at the British Newspaper Library in Colindale. I am not the only historian who hopes and trusts that this access will continue, whether at Colindale or elsewhere.

  Since 2001 I have been a visiting professor at Kingston University, where over the last few years there have been, under the welcoming auspices of Gail Cunningham and Philip Spencer, a series of (for me) enjoyable and stimulating ‘New Jerusalem’ seminars run from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Those attending have included Joe Bailey, Peter Beck, Brian Cathcart, Norma Clarke, Sylvia Collins-Mayo, John Davis, Paul Dixon, Ilaria Favretto, Jeremy Nuttall, John Stuart and Frank Whately.

  The following people not only kindly read and commented on all or part of the various drafts, but were also much-appreciated sources of help and encouragement: Joe Bailey; Mike Burns; Gail Cunningham; Juliet Gardiner; Sara Marsh; Dil Porter; Harry Ricketts; David Warren; Phyllis Willmott. I owe a particular debt to Phyllis Willmott, who since we first met in 2002 has been an unfailingly generous as well as shrewd supporter-cum-critic of what I am trying to do.

  Getting this book over the line has involved what my father would have called ‘a Harry Wragg finish’. I am deeply grate
ful to the following people: Annalisa Zisman (Back to Balance) for keeping me loose; Amanda Howard (Superscript Editorial Services) for transcribing my tapes with remarkable accuracy against very tight deadlines; Andrea Belloli for her sensitive copy-editing; Catherine Best and Patric Dickinson for reading the proofs; Douglas Matthews for compiling the index; my agent Deborah Rogers and her colleagues Hannah Westland and Mohsen Shah; and at Bloomsbury, the very hard-working trio of Bill Swainson, Nick Humphrey and Anna Simpson, whose good humour as well as good judgement have done much to make this a broadly enjoyable experience.

  My largest debt is, as usual, to my family: Laurie, George, Michael and above all my wife Lucy, a pillar throughout of practical, intellectual and emotional support.

  New Malden,

  Summer 2009

  Picture Credits

  Churchill and Attlee survey the opening of the Festival of Britain, 4 May 1951 (Copyright Museum of London)

  St Bride’s, London, June 1951: over ten years after the Blitz (The Times)

  Redgrave Road Residents’ Association, Basildon: day trip to Clacton-on-Sea, 1952 (Courtesy of Anita Woollard)

  Dick Etheridge, leading shop steward at Longbridge, addresses Austin carworkers, 1952 (Getty Images)

  Camden High Street, 1952 (Copyright Museum of London)

  Rush for Scotland vs. England tickets, Hampden Park, Glasgow, March 1952 (NI Syndication)

  Outside an Ebbw Vale chapel, a summer Sunday, 1952 (Getty Images)

  Petticoat Lane, 1952 (Copyright Museum of London)

  Lady Cranbrook recreates the Coronation experience for members of Preston and Langley’s W.I., Hertfordshire (Getty Images)

  Commercial travellers in Maude’s Commercial Hotel, Halifax, 1953 (Getty Images)

  City Surveyor and Engineer (Sir Herbert Manzoni) and City Architect (A. G. Sheppard Fidler) study Birmingham’s Inner Ring Road Scheme, January 1954 (Getty Images)