Deep Into the Sixties

Britain 1965–66

By: David Kynaston

Narrated by: Mark Meadows

'The most entertaining historian alive' SPECTATOR
'Addictively readable' DOMINIC SANDBROOK
‘My goodness, [the series] rockets along: every page contains something surprising, something funny, something sad' CRAIG BROWN, THE TIMES

A definitive portrait of Britain in the throes of the Swinging Sixties, the new instalment in David Kynaston’s legendary 'Tales of a New Jerusalem' series – named one of the best non-fiction works of the 21st century by The Times

It’s the heart of the Sixties in Britain – the Beatles and the Stones vie at the top of the charts, England win the World Cup, and optimism and patriotism percolate through the streets. But this is not the full story of mid-Sixties Britain. Disaffection on the political left increasingly focuses on the escalating Vietnam War; and the ambitious hopes of Harold Wilson’s Labour government start to founder on the precarious state of the pound.

This was a time of looking both backwards and forwards – sweeping reforms to secondary education, huge swathes of urban redevelopment, and the irresistible rise of a confident, free-spending youth culture. Yet everyday life for many, especially beyond the big cities, bore striking resemblance to decades earlier.

Covering the short but intense period from after Churchill’s death in early 1965 to England’s Wembley triumph in July 1966, David Kynaston uses a plethora of contemporary sources, including diaries of ordinary people, to paint a richly nuanced picture of unrivalled detail. Deep Into the Sixties continues to revolutionise how we see post-war Britain.

Critic reviews

The most humane and even-handed chronicler of our time

Magnificent . . . The early Sixties have never been recounted so well