Family Britain, 1951-1957

by David Kynaston

  2. Asa Briggs, Sound and Vision (Oxford, 1995), p 845; Economist, 13 Mar 1954; John Corner, ‘General Introduction: Television and British Society in the 1950s’, in Corner (ed), Popular Television in Britain (1991), p 5; Crossman, p 331; Montgomeryshire Express and Radnor Times, 13 Mar 1954; James Lees-Milne, A Mingled Measure (1994), p 60; Kenneth Clark, The Other Half (Hamish Hamilton edn, 1986), p 138; Picture Post, 23 Oct 1954.

  3. Radio Times, 2 Apr 1954; Briggs, Sound, p 901; Anthony Hayward, ‘Edward Evans’, Independent, 4 Jan 2002; Reynolds News, 11 Apr 1954; Daily Mail, 9 Apr 1954; www.televisionheaven.co.uk/grove.htm; Listener, 15 Apr 1954; Punch, 21 Apr 1954; BBC WA, R9/19/1, Jun 1954, R9/19/2, Jun 1954 (2); Listener, 22 Apr 1954; Wikipedia, ‘The Grove Family’; Radio Times, 16 Apr 1954; Graham McCann, Morecambe & Wise (1998), p 108; Reynolds News, 25 Apr 1954; BBC WA, R9/19/2, Jun 1954 (2); Reynolds News, 23 May 1954; McCann, Morecambe, pp 109, 115.

  4. Martin Gilbert, ‘Never Despair’ (1988), pp 968–9; Mark Pythian, ‘CND’s Cold War’, Contemporary British History (Autumn 2001), p 134; Crossman, p 305; Roy Jenkins, Churchill (2001), pp 875–7; Henry Pelling, Churchill’s Peacetime Ministry, 1951–55 (Basingstoke, 1997), p 123; Coventry Evening Telegraph, 6 Apr 1954; New Statesman, 10 Apr 1954; Anthony Adamthwaite, ‘“Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation”: The BBC’s Response to Peace and Defence Issues, 1945–58’, Contemporary Record (Winter 1993), pp 567–8.

  5. BBC WA, Any Questions?, 14 Jan 1955; Picture Post, 16 Jun 1956; David R. Devereux, ‘State Versus Private Ownership: The Conservative Governments and British Civil Aviation, 1951–62’, Albion (Spring 1995), p 78; Berry Ritchie, ‘Sir Freddie Laker’, Independent, 11 Feb 2006; Thayer Watkins, ‘The Concorde Supersonic Transport’ (London Conference on Concorde, c. 2000).

  6. John Campbell, Nye Bevan (1997), p 284; Dalton, p 624; New Yorker, 15 May 1954; Ben Pimlott, Harold Wilson (1992), pp 184–7; Dalton, p 625.

  7. Orpington & Kentish Times, 30 Apr 1954; Daily Mail, 26 Apr 1954; David Butler, ‘Len Pountney’, Independent, 18 Jun 1997; Cyril Dunn, ‘Notes on a London Satellite, 1953–54’; Orpington & Kentish Times, 7 May 1954; Paul Rock and Stanley Cohen, ‘The Teddy Boy’, in Vernon Bogdanor and Robert Skidelsky (eds), The Age of Affluence, 1951–64 (1970), p 297; Picture Post, 29 May 1954.

  8. St John, 28 Apr 1954; Langford, 28 Apr 1954; Heap, 1 May 1954; Fowles, EUL MS 102/1/8, fol 123, 12 May 1954; Christine Geraghty, British Cinema in the Fifties (2000), p 67; John Coldstream, Dirk Bogarde (2004), p 204.

  9. Listener, 29 Apr 1954, 6 May 1954, 13 May 1954, 20 May 1954; Economist, 13 Feb 1954; Listener, 20 May 1954; Joan Keating, ‘Faith and Community Threatened? Roman Catholic Responses to the Welfare State, Materialism and Social Mobility, 1945–62’, Twentieth Century British History 9/1 (1998), pp 92–4; Robert Walsha, ‘The One Nation Group: A Tory Approach to Backbench Politics and Organization, 1950–55’, Twentieth Century British History 11/2 (2000), pp 208–12.

  10. Townsend, ‘Pilot Interviews, 1954’, 27 Apr 1954, 29 Apr 1954.

  11. Yorkshire Post, 5 May 1954; Geoffrey Moorhouse, At the George (1989), p 35; Yorkshire Post, 6 May 1954; Bradford Telegraph & Argus, 6 May 1954; Jeff Hill, ‘Rite of Spring: Cup Finals and Community in the North of England’, in Hill and Jack Williams (eds), Sport and Identity in the North of England (Keele, 1996), p 91; Yorkshire Post, 7 May 1954; Oxford Mail, 7 May 1954; Spectator, 14 May 1954; The Times, 5 May 2004; Oxford Mail, 7 May 1954; Briggs, Sound, p 775; Halifax Daily Courier, 7 May 1954; John Bale, ‘How Much of a Hero? The Fractured Image of Roger Bannister’, Sport in History, Aug 2006, pp 235–47.

  12. Raynham, 15 May 1954; Reynolds News, 16 May 1954; Martin, 15 May 1954; BBC WA, R9/74/1, Jun 1954; Radio Times, 7 May 1954; M-O A, TC 69/8/K; Billy Graham, Just As I Am (1997), pp 233–4; Pollock, Billy Graham, p 175; David J. Jeremy, Capitalists and Christians (Oxford, 1990), p 397; St John, 22 May 1954; Graham, Just, p 236.

  13. Daily Mail, 22 May 1954; Peter Beck, ‘Britain in the Cold War’s “Cultural Olympics”: Responding to the Political Drive of Soviet Sport, 1945–58’, Contemporary British History (June 2005), p 177; Independent, 20 Apr 2004 (Julia Stuart); John Karter, Lester (1992), p 27; Daily Mail, 26 Jun 1954, 28 Jun 1954.

  14. Iris Murdoch, Under the Net (Penguin edn, 1960), pp 31, 99; Times Literary Supplement, 9 May 1954; Spectator, 11 Jun 1954; Peter J. Conradi, Iris Murdoch (2001), p 385; New Statesman, 5 Jun 1954; Conradi, Iris, p 386; New Statesman, 26 Jun 1954.

  15. Whitby Gazette, 18 Jun 1954; David T. Thompson, Pinter (Basingstoke, 1985), p 27; Mark Lewisohn, Funny, Peculiar (2002), pp 206–7; Radio Times, 25 Jun 1954; Reynolds News, 4 Jul 1954.

  16. BBC WA, Any Questions?, 21 Jan 1954; Somerset County Gazette, 29 May 1954; David Leavitt, The Man Who Knew Too Much (2006), pp 268, 275–6; Richard Davenport-Hines, Sex, Death and Punishment (1990), p 315.

  17. Raynham, 10 May 1954; Paul Bookbinder, Simon Marks (1993), p 136; Coventry Evening Telegraph, 22 Dec 1953; Observer, 13 Jun 1954; Lord Briggs, ‘TV Advertising and the Social Revolution’, in Brian Henry (ed), British Television Advertising (1986), p 347; Woman’s Own, 1 Jul 1954; Woman, 3 Jul 1954; Lady, 1 Jul 1954.

  18. Haines, 2 Jul 1954; ‘Jaroslav Drobny’, Daily Telegraph, 15 Sep 2001; Spectator, 3 Jul 2004 (Frank Keating); Raynham, 2 Jul 1954; Macmillan, p 322; Haines, 3 Jul 1954; Conradi, Iris, p 387.

  19. Yorkshire Post, 3 Jul 1954; Sussex Express & County Herald (Hailsham & Heathfield edn), 9 Jul 1954; Yorkshire Post, 5 Jul 1954.

  3 The Right Type of Fellow

  1. Daily Mirror, 20 Jun 1954; Lorna Sage, Bad Blood (2000), pp 136–7; P.W.J. Bartrip, ‘Myxomatosis in 1950s Britain’, Twentieth Century British History 19/1 (2008), pp 83–105.

  2. Sage, Bad Blood, p 137; Alun Howkins, The Death of Rural England (2003), p 152; Howard Newby, Country Life (1987), p 206; Financial Times, 27 Jun 1955; BBC Four, ‘The Lie of the Land’, 5 Nov 2003; Thomson Collection (University of Northumbria), ‘Milton Keynes’ file.

  3. St John, 5 Jul 1954; Birmingham Post, 12 Jul 1954; M-O A, D5353, 14 Jul 1954; Preston, 22 Jul 1954; Phyllis Willmott, Bethnal Green Journal, 1954–55 (2001), pp 4–5; The Times, 14 Jul 1954, 23 Sep 1954.

  4. Daily Telegraph, 12 Jul 1954; Daily Mirror, 14 Jul 1954, 16 Jul 1954; Gerald Howat, Len Hutton (1988), p 148; John Arlott, Fred (1971), p 84; Daily Mirror, 20 Jul 1954; The Times, 20 Jul 1954.

  5. Crossman, MS 154/8/15, fol. 531, 30 Jul 1954; Martin, 28 Jul 1954, 30–31 Jul 1954; O. L. Willmott, The Parish Notes of Loders, Dottery & Askerswell, Dorset: Volume I, 1948–1965 (Shrewsbury, 1996), Sep 1954.

  6. Listener, 5 Aug 1954; Radio Times, 23 Jul 1954; Terry Hallett, Bristol’s Forgotten Empire (Wesbury, 2000), p 192; ‘John Chapman’, Daily Telegraph, 7 Sep 2001; Heap, 5 Aug 1954; Martin, 21 Aug 1954; Financial Times, 20 Apr 1996; Richard North, ‘A Jolly Start to the Revolution’, Independent, 6 Aug 1994; Dennis Barker, ‘Julian Slade’, Guardian, 20 Jun 2006.

  7. Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien (1977), pp 218–19; New Statesman, 18 Sep 1954; Carpenter, Tolkien, p 220; Punch, 8 Sep 1954; Spectator, 1 Oct 1954; Carpenter, Tolkien, pp 219–21; Colin Wilson, Dreaming to Some Purpose (2004), p 131.

  8. BBC WA, R9/9/18, LR/54/1303; Haines, 30 Aug 1954, 4 Sep 1954.

  9. Sunday Post, 22 Aug 1954; Phil Gordon, ‘Willie Woodburn’, Independent, 6 Dec 2001; Brian Glanville, ‘Willie Woodburn’, Guardian, 11 Dec 2001; Sunday Post, 29 Aug 1954, 5 Sep 1954; Hugh McIlvanney, ‘The Fall of Willie Woodburn’, in Ian Hamilton (ed), The Faber Book of Soccer (1992), pp 56–65; Sunday Post, 19 Sep 1954; Gordon, ‘Woodburn’; Peter Acton and Colin M. Jarman (eds), Roy of the Rovers (Harpenden, 1994), p 11; Radio Times, 10 Sep 1954; David Cannadine, ‘The “Last Night of the Proms” in Historical Perspective’, Historical Research (May 2008), p 334; The Times, 20 Sep 1954; Cannadine, ‘“Last Night”’, p 334.

  10. Christopher Sandford, Mick Jagger (Cooper Square Press edn, New York, 1999), p 23; Stuart Maclure, A History of Education in London, 1870–1990 (1990), p 174; Alan Kerckhoff et al, Go
ing Comprehensive in England and Wales (1996), p 63; Anthony Sampson, Anatomy of Britain (1962), p 187; Brian Simon, Education and Social Order, 1940–1990 (1991), p 173; ‘Dame Mary Green’, The Times, 26 Apr 2004; Eltham & Kentish Times, 10 Sep 1954, 24 Sep 1954. In general on Kidbrooke, see Kidbrooke School, Memories of Kidbrooke School, 1954–2005 (2005); Rebecca Smithers, ‘Gold Standard’, Guardian, 12 Jul 2005.

  11. Max Beloff, ‘Democracy and Its Discontents’, Encounter, Jun 1954, p 54; Simon, Education, pp 150–51; L. S. Hearnshaw, Cyril Burt (1979), p 119; Times Educational Supplement, 17 Dec 1954; A. H. Halsey, ‘Social Mobility in Britain – A Review’, Sociological Review (Dec 1954), pp 169–77; Picture Post, 4 Dec 1954; Crossman, MS 154/8/14, 6 Apr 1954.

  12. New Statesman, 4 Jun 1955; Steve Humphries et al, A Century of Childhood (1988), pp 135–6; Correlli Barnett, The Verdict of Peace (2001), p 480; Simon, Education, pp 183–7; Gareth Elwyn Jones, ‘1944 and All That’, History of Education (Sep 1990), pp 246–7; Simon, Education, p 187.

  13. Economist, 12 Feb 1955; Northern Daily Mail, 2 Jul 1954; Economist, 12 Feb 1955; Dennis Dean, ‘Preservation or Renovation? The Dilemmas of Conservative Educational Policy 1955–1960’, Twentieth Century British History 3/1 (1992), pp 14–15; Simon, Education, pp 185–6; Rene Saran, Policy-Making in Secondary Education (Oxford, 1973), p 54.

  14. Lynn News & Advertiser, 7 Sep 1954; Lionel Esher, A Broken Wave (1981), p 59; ‘Peter Smithson’, The Times, 10 Mar 2003; Bryan Appleyard, Richard Rodgers (1986), p 77; Dan Cruickshank, ‘Hunstanton School’, RIBA Journal (Jan 1997), p 51; Anthony Jackson, The Politics of Architecture (1970), p 184; Architectural Review (Nov 1954), p 282, Feb 1955, p 82; Lynn News & Advertiser, 17 Sep 1954; The Times, 19 Mar 2003.

  15. Macmillan, p 356; Harriet Jones, ‘New Tricks for an Old Dog? The Conservatives and Social Policy’, in Anthony Gorst et al (eds), Contemporary British History, 1931–1961 (1991), p 41; Christopher W. Bacon, ‘Streets-in-the-Sky: The Rise and Fall of the Modern Architectural Urban Utopia’, Univeristy of Sheffield PhD, 1982, pp 234–5; A.G.V. Simmonds, ‘Conservative Governments and the Housing Question, 1951–59’, University of Leeds PhD, 1995, pp 41, 110–11, 424–5.

  16. Alison Ravetz, Remaking Cities (1980), pp 67–8; Gordon E. Cherry, Town Planning in Britain since 1900 (Oxford, 1996), p 136; Ravetz, Remaking, p 200; Simmonds, ‘Conservative’, pp 160–61; Ravetz, Remaking, p 200; William Ashworth, The Genesis of Modern Town Planning (1954), p 237; Picture Post, 15 May 1954, 29 May 1954; Gavin Stamp, Britain’s Lost Cities (2007), pp 35–6; Grant Lewisohn and Rosalind Billingham, Coventry New Architecture (Warwick, 1969), pp 30–31; Coventry Evening Telegraph, 13 Jan 1955; Andrew Saint, Towards a Social Architecture (1987), p 163; John Griffith, ‘Crichel Down: The Most Famous Farm in British Constitutional History’, Contemporary Record (Spring 1987), pp 35–40; The Times, 20 Jul 1954; Daily Mirror, 20 Jul 1954; John Davis, ‘Macmillan’s Martyr: The Pilgrim Case, the “Land Grab” and the Tory Housing Drive, 1951–9’, Planning Perspectives (Apr 2008), pp 125–46; Romford Times, 6 Oct 1954; Harold Macmillan, Tides of Fortune (1969), p 48; Romford Times, 13 Oct 1954.

  17. Picture Post, 3 Jul 1954, 17 Jul 1954; Patrick Dunleavy, The Politics of Mass Housing in Britain, 1945–1975 (Oxford, 1981), p 268; Simmonds, ‘Conservative’, p 134; Dame Evelyn Sharpe, ‘The Next Million Houses – Where Are They to Be?’, Housing Centre Review (Jul–Aug 1955), p 4; Colin Boyne, ‘Ian Nairn: 1930–83’, Architectural Review (Sept 1983), p 4; Architectural Review (Mar 1955), p 204, (Jun 1955), pp 365–6, 371, 451; Joe Moran, ‘“Subtopias of Good Intentions”: Everyday Landscapes in Postwar Britain’, Cultural and Social History (Sep 2007), p 406.

  18. Picture Post, 3 Jul 1954; Miles Glendinning and Stefan Muthesius, Tower Block (1994), p 172; Fowles, EUL MS 102/1/8, fol 182, 13 Nov 1954; The Society of Housing Managers, Report of Conference (1955), pp 6, 22, 65; ‘Symposium on High Flats: Part I’, Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Mar 1955), p 195; Dunleavy, Politics, p 165; Economist, 5 Mar 1955; New Statesman, 2 Oct 1954.

  19. Simmonds, ‘Conservative’, pp 214–33; City of Sheffield Housing, Multi-Storey Housing in Some European Countries (Sheffield, 1955), pp 36–7; Sheffield Star, 13 Apr 1955; John R. Gold, The Practice of Modernism (Abingdon, 2007), p 215.

  20. Society of Housing Managers, Report, p 8; Michael Young, ‘Must We Abandon Our Cities?’, Socialist Commentary (Sept 1954), pp 251–3, ‘Whose Houses First?’, Socialist Commentary (Nov 1954), pp 310–14, ‘The Two Nations of 1955’, Socialist Commentary (Jun 1955), pp 168–70.

  4 Bonny Babies, Well-washed Matrons

  1. Lynn Seymour, Lynn (1984), pp 22–30; Jonathon Green, Them (1990), pp 90–91; Geoffrey Wansell, Terence Rattigan (1995), pp 250–52; Michael Billington, State of the Nation (2007), pp 68–72; Heap, 22 Sep 1954; Langford, 16 Oct 1954; Dominic Shellard (ed), Kenneth Tynan, Theatre Writings (2007), pp 35–7.

  2. Spectator, 1 Oct 1954, 8 Oct 1954, 15 Oct 1954; Clive Wilmer, ‘Thom Gunn’, Independent, 29 Apr 2004; Bryan Appleyard, The Pleasures of Peace (1989), p 103; Amis, p 405; Alan Sinfield, Literature, Politics and Culture in Postwar Britain (Oxford, 1989), pp 79–81, 158–60; Kevin Jackson, ‘Exorcising Coleridge’, Independent, 10 Sep 1990; D. J. Taylor, ‘D.J. Enright 1920–2002’, Times Literary Supplement, 10 Jan 2003; The Spur (Autumn Term 1954), p 15. The authoritative account of the Movement remains Blake Morrison, The Movement (Oxford, 1980).

  3. Alan Bennett, Writing Home (1994), pp 32–3; Fowles, p 343; Gaitskell, p 334; Mark Pottle (ed), Daring To Hope: The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1946–1969 (2002), pp 139–40; BBC WA, Any Questions?, 8 Oct 1954; Pottle (ed), Daring, p 140.

  4. Philip M. Williams, Hugh Gaitskell (1979), p 329; Crossman, pp 350–51; John Campbell, Nye Bevan (Richard Cohen edn, 1997), p 293; Brian Brivati, Hugh Gaitskell (1996), p 198; Crossman, pp 352–3.

  5. Raynham, 11 Oct 1954; Heap, 13 Oct 1954; Raynham, 15 Oct 1954; Jim Phillips, ‘Inter-Union Conflict in the Docks, 1954–1955’, Historical Studies in Industrial Relations (Mar 1996), pp 107–30; New Yorker, 27 Nov 1954 (Panter-Downes); News Chronicle, 1 Nov 1954; Henry Pelling, Churchill’s Peacetime Ministry, 1951–55 (Basingstoke, 1997), p 158; Crossman, pp 360–61; Andrew Roberts, Eminent Churchillians (1994), p 270; Macmillan, p 363; Jack Dash, Good Morning, Brothers! (1969), pp 84–5; New Statesman, 6 Nov 1954; Geoffrey Goodman, ‘The Role of Industrial Correspondents’, in Alan Campbell et al (eds), British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics: Volume One (Aldershot, 1999), p 29; Raphael Samuel, The Lost World of British Communism (2006), pp 123–54.

  6. Langford, 9 Oct 1954; M-O A, D5353, 9 Oct 1954; Haines, 29 Nov 1954; Crossman, pp 375–6.

  7. Langford, 22 Oct 1954; Philip Norman, John Lennon (2008), pp 65–6; Roger Wilmut and Jimmy Grafton, The Goon Show Companion (1976), p 140; Listener, 21 Oct 1954; Norman, John Lennon, p 65; Wilmut and Grafton, Goon Show, pp 59–60; Radio Times, 29 Oct 1954; Russell Davies (ed), The Kenneth Williams Diaries (1993), p 105; Radio Times, 29 Oct 1954; Listener, 11 Nov 1954; Roger Wilmut, Tony Hancock ‘Artiste’ (1978), p 174; Peter Goddard, ‘“Hancock’s Half-Hour”: A Watershed in British Television Comedy’, in John Corner (ed), Popular Television in Britain (1991), p 78.

  8. Radio Times, 10 Dec 1954; Langford, 13 Oct 1954; Susan Sydney-Smith, Beyond Dixon of Dock Green (2002), pp 100–101; Radio Times, 17 Dec 1954; News Chronicle, 15 Nov 1954; Punch, 15 Dec 1954.

  9. Radio Times, 10 Dec 1954; Listener, 16 Dec 1954; Francis Wheen, Television (1985), p 111; BBC WA, R9/19/2, Feb 1955; Chaplin, 7/3/1, 14 Dec 1954; Any Questions?, 17 Dec 1954; Punch, 21 Dec 1954; Martin, 12 Nov 1954; Picture Post, 20 Nov 1954; Macmillan, p 388; John Springhall, ‘Horror Comics: The Nasties of the 1950s’, History Today (Jul 1994), pp 10–13.

  10. Langford, 9 Oct 1954; Spectator, 1 Oct 1954; Andrew Lambirth, ‘John Bratby’, Independent, 23 Jul 1992; New Statesman, 25 Sep 1954; David Sylvester, ‘The Kitchen Sink’, Encounter (Dec 1954), pp 61–4; Philip Vann, ‘Jean Cooke’, Guardian, 29 Aug 20
08; Andrew Lambirth, ‘Jean Cooke’, Indpendent, 11 Aug 2008.

  11. Macmillan, p 368; Raynham, 30 Nov 1954; Daniel Farson, Sacred Monsters (1988), p 167; Clarissa Eden, A Memoir (2007), p 180; Kenneth Harris, Attlee (1982), p 525; Roy Jenkins, Churchill (2001), p 890; Spectator, 3 Dec 1954; Brian Glanville, ‘Stan Culllis’, Guardian, 1 Mar 2001; Percy M. Young, Football Year (1956), p 49; The Times, 17 Nov 1954; Subrata Dasgupta, Salaam Stanley Matthews (2006), pp 92–3; News Chronicle, 14 Dec 1954; Phyllis Willmott, Bethnal Green Journal, 1954–1955 (2001), p 37; Haines, 28 Dec 1954.

  5 A Fair Crack at the Whip

  1. Charles Loft, ‘Reappraisal and Reshaping: Government and the Railway Problem, 1951–64’, Contemporary British History (Winter 2001), p 75; News Chronicle, 25 Jan 1955; BBC Four, ‘The Last Days of Steam’, 16 Oct 2008; Economist, 29 Jan 1955; Osbert Lancaster, Signs of the Times (1961), p 89; New Statesman, 24 Nov 2003 (Gerald Crompton); The Times, 3 Feb 1955; Picture Post, 5 Nov 1955; Town Planning Review (Jan 1956), p 237.

  2. News Chronicle, 16 Feb 1955; Fred Roberts, Sixty Years of Nuclear History (Charlbury, 1999), pp 72–3; Sir Christopher Hinton, ‘The Atom for You’, Picture Post, 13 Aug 1955; Raynham, 31 Mar 1955.

  3. Andrew Roberts, Eminent Churchillians (1994), pp 270–74; George H. Gallup (ed), The Gallup International Public Opinion Polls: Great Britain, 1937–1975, Volume One (New York, 1976), p 343; Macmillan, p 378; Economist, 15 Jan 1955; Simon Heffer, Like the Roman (1988), p 195; Macmillan, p 382; John Stobbs, ‘Is Morale High Enough?’, Picture Post, 14 Jan 1956; Brian Thompson, Clever Girl (2007), pp 151–4.

  4. John Singleton, ‘Showing the White Flag: The Lancashire Cotton Industry, 1945–65’, Business History (Oct 1990), pp 132–3; Marguerite Dupree, ‘Struggling with Destiny: The Cotton Industry Overseas Trade Policy and the Cotton Board, 1940–1959’, Business History (Oct 1990), p 119; Spectator, 5 Feb 1954; Picture Post, 20 Feb 1954; Dupree, ‘Struggling’, pp 120–21.