Retro Reads: The Village by Marghanita Laski
On May 7, 1945 the BBC in London interrupted its scheduled programme with a newsflash. The war in Europe was over. The following day would be a national holiday. The celebrations which swept through the country on VE-Day are well documented — the celebrating crowds, the dancing, the street parties, the bonfires, the flags and bunting, the relief and thanksgiving that the darkest hours of suffering and danger were over.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill broadcast to the nation at 3pm on that day and gave an impromptu speech to cheering crowds in central London. Later that evening King George VI made his wireless address to the people.
Andrea Newman, who died recently, was a British author who is best remembered for her novels which became steamy, gripping television dramas about characters whose family relationships are fraught with sexual tensions and desires.
The Cry from Street to Street by Hilary Bailey
If only Poundland had existed in 1960, and if only the company had at that point come up with its wheeze of selling engagement rings for £1.
Oh, the Swinging Sixties, full of fun, glamour and excitement. The clubs! The girls! The boys! The streets paved with boutiques! In 1963 we are moving well into the decade of fab, just three years before Time Magazine hailed London as The Swinging City, but the The Small World of Sammy Lee, written and directed by Ken Hughes, depicts a different reality.
SPOILER ALERT: This article references events in the novel Vanity Fair.
