White Heat


Book Description

'An active pleasure to read' Mail on Sunday Harold Wilson's famous reference to 'white heat' captured the optimistic spirit of a society in the midst of breathtaking change. From the gaudy pleasures of Swinging London to the tragic bloodshed in Northern Ireland, from the intrigues of Westminster to the drama of the World Cup, British life seemed to have taken on a dramatic new momentum. The memories, images and colourful personalities of those heady times still resonate today: mop-tops and mini-skirts, strikes and demonstrations, Carnaby Street and Kings Road, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath, Mary Quant and Jean Shrimpton, Enoch Powell and Mary Whitehouse, Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger. In this wonderfully rich and readable historical narrative, Dominic Sandbrook looks behind the myths of the Swinging Sixties to unearth the contradictions of a society caught between optimism and decline.




The Swinging Sixties


Book Description

The swinging sixties was the fashion and cultural scene that flourished in Great Britain during the 1960s, with 'Swinging London' as the hip capital. This book takes an affectionate look back at the fashions, music and lifestyles of this vibrant decade in almost 400 photographs hand-picked from the archives of Mirrorpix




London Life


Book Description

While many books, films and documentaries claim to have captured the phenomenon that was Swinging London, just one magazine was present in the capital during the 1960s to illustrate this extraordinary moment as it unravelled. London Life emerged in October 1965 and, over the next fifteen months, would document the capital's action at its absolute zenith. With imagery from the likes of David Bailey, Duffy and Terence Donovan, designs from Peter Blake, David Hockney, Gerald Scarfe and fledgling artist Ian Dury plus words and opinions from those riding high on the city`s cutting-edge, London Life remains the coolest document from the capital's most exciting period. Collected for the first time, including forewords from Peter Blake and David Puttnam and a scene-setting introduction from Simon Wells, London Life offers a remarkable and candid view on a period when London was the creative hub of the world.




Swingin' Chicks of the '60s


Book Description

An affectionate tribute to the women who waged a cultural revolution, "Swingin' Chicks of the '60s" offers photos, profiles and little-known details of the lives of 101 defining divas of the decade, including Twiggy, Annette Funicello, Ann-Margret, Diana Rigg, Patty Duke, Janis Joplin, Cher, Jane Fonda, and Mia Farrow. 300_ photos.




Ready, Steady, Go!


Book Description

It’s the summer of 1966... The fundamental old ways: chastity, rationality, harmony, sobriety, even democracy: blasted to nothing or crumbling under siege. The city glows. It echoes. It pulses. It bleeds pastel and fuzzy, spicy, paisley and soft. This is how it's always going to be: smashing clothes, brilliant music, easy sex, eternal youth, the eyes of everybody, everyone's first thought, the top of the world, right here, right now: Swinging London. Shawn Levy has a genius for unearthing the secret history of popular culture. The Los Angeles Times called King of Comedy, his biography of Jerry Lewis, "a model of what a celebrity bio ought to be–smart, knowing, insightful, often funny, full of fascinating insiders' stories," and the Boston Globe declared that Rat Pack Confidential "evokes the time in question with the power of a novel, as well as James Ellroy's American Tabloid and better by far than Don DeLillo's Underworld." In Ready, Steady, Go! Levy captures the spirit of the sixties in all its exuberance. A portrait of London from roughly 1961 to 1969, it chronicles the explosion of creativity–in art, music and fashion–and the revolutions–sexual, social and political–that reshaped the world. Levy deftly blends the enthusiasm of a fan, the discerning eye of a social critic and a historian's objectivity as he re-creates the hectic pace and daring experimentation of the times–from the utter transformation of rock 'n' roll by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to the new aesthetics introduced by fashion designers like Mary Quant, haircutters like Vidal Sassoon, photographers like David Bailey, actors like Michael Caine and Terence Stamp and filmmakers like Richard Lester and Nicolas Roeg to the wild clothing shops and cutting-edge clubs that made Carnaby Street and King's Road the hippest thoroughfares in the world. Spiced with the reminiscences of some of the leading icons of that period, their fans and followers, and featuring a photographic gallery of well-known faces and far-out fashions, Ready, Steady, Go! is an irresistible re-creation of a time and place that seemed almost impossibly fun.




The Sixties


Book Description

Many books have been written on the Sixties: tributes to music and fashion, sex, drugs and revolution. In The Sixties, Jenny Diski breaks the mould, wryly dismantling the big ideas that dominated the era - liberation, permissiveness and self-invention - to consider what she and her generation were really up to. Was it rude to refuse to have sex with someone? Did they take drugs to get by, or to see the world differently? How responsible were they for the self-interest and greed of the Eighties? With characteristic wit and verve, Diski takes an incisive look at the radical beliefs to which her generation subscribed, little realising they were often old ideas dressed up in new forms, sometimes patterned by BIBA. She considers whether she and her peers were as serious as they thought about changing the world, if the radical sixties were funded by the baby-boomers' parents, and if the big idea shaping the Sixties was that it really felt as if it meant something to be young.




Swingin' London


Book Description

Explore an illustrated guide to the key locations of 1960s London - the bars, clubs, boutiques and hangouts.




Call Me Sister


Book Description

Who'd have thought a missing bacon rasher and a teaspoon would play a part in advancing someone's career? It's the late '60s and Jane Yeadon has always wanted to be a district nurse. Staff nursing in a ward where she's challenged by an inventorydriven ward sister, she reckons it's time to swap such trivialities for life as a district nurse. Independent thinking is one thing, but Jane's about to find that the drama on district can demand instant reaction; and without hospital back up, she's usually the one having to provide it. She meets a rich cast of patients all determined to follow their own individual star, and goes to Edinburgh where Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute's nurse training is considered the crème de la crème of the district nursing world. Call Me Sister recalls Jane's challenging and often hilarious route to realising her own particular dream.




The Isle of Man


Book Description

Discover the long and fascinating history of this tiny self-governing island in the Irish Sea. Many people don’t know that the tiny Isle of Man, midway between the coasts of Lancashire and Northern Ireland, is one of the richest historic landscapes in Europe. Packed into its 225 square miles are dramatic stories of Bronze Age conflict, Viking warriors, medieval kings, smugglers, maritime and railway history, wartime airfields, and even a pirate radio station. Add to that the island's unique motorsport heritage (on two, three and four wheels), and you have a combination unrivaled anywhere in the British Isles. Whatever your passion, or whichever historical period appeals to you, the Isle of Man will have something fascinating to offer. Packed with illustrations, and using first-hand accounts to enhance the narrative, this book takes you on a chronological journey through the island’s history, before offering a series of guided tours which pick up the highlights of each district. From Bronze Age hill forts to medieval castles, from heritage railways to historic quaysides, from award-winning museums to country mansions, the Isle of Man has it all. Let this book be your guide to historic Britain's best-kept secret, as you explore a place untouched by the hectic pace of twenty-first-century life. Includes photos




Ready, Steady, Go!: Swinging London and the Invention of Cool (Text Only)


Book Description

Shawn Levy, author of ‘Rat Pack Confidential’ brings alive London in the swinging Sixties with a gripping, groovy story of those who created the scene that changed the world. This edition does not include illustrations.