{"product_id":"on-the-cusp-days-of-62-9781526632005","title":"On the Cusp: Days of '62","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eTIMES \u003c\/i\u003eBEST PAPERBACK OF 2022\u003c\/b\u003e ------------------ \u003cb\u003e'Glorious ... It's rare to read anything so teeming with life' \u003ci\u003eSPECTATOR\u003c\/i\u003e, Books of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e 'This is Kynaston at his best ... A rich and vivid picture of a nation in all its human complexity' IAN JACK\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003cb\u003e'A compulsive read ... Generous as well as sharp' MARGARET DRABBLE\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003cb\u003e'I was captivated by its brilliance' D. J. TAYLOR\u003c\/b\u003e __________________  \u003cb\u003eThe ‘real’ Sixties began on 5 October 1962\u003c\/b\u003e. On that remarkable Friday, the Beatles hit the world with their first single, ‘Love Me Do’, and the first James Bond film, \u003ci\u003eDr No\u003c\/i\u003e, had its world premiere in London: two icons of the future heralding a social and cultural revolution.  \u003ci\u003eOn the Cusp\u003c\/i\u003e, continuing David Kynaston’s groundbreaking history of post-war Britain, takes place during the summer and early autumn of 1962, in the charged months leading up to the moment that a country changed. The Rolling Stones’ debut at the Marquee Club, the last Gentlemen versus Players match at Lord’s, the issue of Britain’s relationship with Europe starting to divide the country, Telstar the satellite beaming live TV pictures across the world, ‘Telstar’ the record a siren call to a techno future – these were months thick with incident, all woven together here with an array of fresh contemporary sources, including diarists both famous and obscure.  Britain would never be the same again after these months. Sometimes indignant, sometimes admiring, always empathetic, \u003ci\u003eOn the Cusp\u003c\/i\u003e evokes a world of seaside holidays, of church fetes, of \u003ci\u003eSteptoe and\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eSon\u003c\/i\u003e – a world still of seemingly settled social and economic certainties, but in fact on the edge of fundamental change.  ___________________ \u003cb\u003e'Sparkles with voices from a vanished world ... An entrancing representation, full of exquisite detail'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e KATE WILLIAMS\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003cb\u003e'What a joy it has been to find myself wholly immersed in the richness of Kynaston's account ... Thrilling' JULIET NICOLSON\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor me \u003cb\u003ethe best book this year\u003c\/b\u003e was David Kynaston's\u003cb\u003e glorious\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eOn the Cusp ... \u003c\/i\u003eIt’s rare to read anything so\u003cb\u003e teeming with life\u003c\/b\u003e - so many diverse voices offering their own glimpse of a world which, as Kynaston \u003cb\u003econvincingly\u003c\/b\u003e argues, was changing more dramatically than ever before or since. Many people have written about this period between the end of the \u003ci\u003eChatterley\u003c\/i\u003e ban and the Beatles’ first LP, but few have given such a\u003cb\u003e rich \u003c\/b\u003esense of living through it -- Philip Hensher * Spectator, Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eThis is \u003cb\u003eKynaston at his best.\u003c\/b\u003e A thousand glimpses of British life in 1962 produce \u003cb\u003ea rich and vivid picture of a nation in all its human complexity\u003c\/b\u003e, standing at the edge of great change. Beautifully woven\u003cb\u003e, it yields surprises and fresh insights on every page\u003c\/b\u003e – and in my case a blizzard of memories -- Ian Jack\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA compulsive read. \u003c\/b\u003eHe is such a fine historian and sociologist, with an eye and ear for the unexpected, and a sharp sense of humour that makes the reader laugh aloud. \u003cb\u003eIt’s generous as well as sharp. \u003c\/b\u003eFor me, it was like reliving some of the most exciting and hopeful months of my life, \u003cb\u003ean illuminating exploration of an important stretch of time\u003c\/b\u003e. -- Margaret Drabble\u003cbr\u003e'Tales of a New Jerusalem' has already established itself as the definitive history of post-war Britain. This latest instalment has all the \u003cb\u003eeye-catching detail and informed synthesis\u003c\/b\u003e that Kynaston's admirers have come to expect. \u003cb\u003eI was captivated by its brilliance\u003c\/b\u003e -- D. J. Taylor\u003cbr\u003eA fascinating crystal of time, Kynaston's \u003cb\u003esuperb evocation\u003c\/b\u003e of Britain ...  \u003cb\u003esparkles with voices from a vanished world\u003c\/b\u003e ... \u003cb\u003eAn entrancing representation, full of exquisite detail and unforgettable voices\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eOn the Cusp\u003c\/i\u003e invites us in, to the real lives behind historical trends, a door to Britain on the brink of great change -- Kate Williams\u003cbr\u003eWhat \u003cb\u003ea joy\u003c\/b\u003e it has been to find myself wholly immersed in the \u003cb\u003erichness \u003c\/b\u003eof Kynaston’s account of those few amazing, ground-shifting months, just before we were all tipped into the drama of the 1960s proper. There is something \u003cb\u003ehugely, hindsightingly thrilling\u003c\/b\u003e in reading about the early seed-sowing of a story whose outcome we know so well * Juliet Nicolson *\u003cbr\u003eWith his\u003cb\u003e eagle eye\u003c\/b\u003e, Kynaston selects details and incidents that serve as\u003cb\u003e emblems of larger shifts in the zeitgeist\u003c\/b\u003e ... He is\u003cb\u003e a wonderfully diligent chronicler \u003c\/b\u003eof the changing face of popular culture at the time ... Kynaston is \u003cb\u003ea master \u003c\/b\u003eat mixing key political and social movements with the more humdrum details of everyday life -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003eDavid Kynaston continues his \u003cb\u003emagnificent\u003c\/b\u003e series on postwar British society with \u003ci\u003eOn the Cusp\u003c\/i\u003e, a \u003cb\u003eriveting \u003c\/b\u003estudy of four pivotal summer months ... Kynaston is a \u003cb\u003emaster\u003c\/b\u003e of popular culture ... But what Kynaston captures again and again - and this is what gives his book such \u003cb\u003eimportance\u003c\/b\u003e - is the conscious, almost fanatical desire by those in authority at the time to dismantle, literally, evidence of the past -- Simon Heffer * Sunday Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eKynaston\u003cb\u003e skilfully \u003c\/b\u003euses private diaries, archives, memoirs, social surveys, newspapers and magazines to give the flavour of the period and what people were thinking not just in Westminster and Whitehall but in, for example, Birmingham, Manchester, Barrow-in-Furness, Keighley, Bournemouth and Llanfrothen in north Wales ... \u003cb\u003eAbsorbing\u003c\/b\u003e * New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003eIt has all the characteristic hallmarks of [Kynaston's] writing: \u003cb\u003evivid\u003c\/b\u003e pointillist detail, an \u003cb\u003eextraordinary \u003c\/b\u003erange of sources and penetrating analysis of evidence ... Kynaston is \u003cb\u003ea master\u003c\/b\u003e of minutiae and the great joy of his book is to be found in fragments, anecdotes and vignettes -- Piers Brendon * Literary Review *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eExcellent\u003c\/b\u003e * Choice Magazine *\u003cbr\u003eKynaston’s \u003cb\u003eimpressive\u003c\/b\u003e history of Britain comes to the year 1962 … His ongoing achievement – aside from managing the prodigious quantities of material – is to convince his readers, who know well what comes next, of real lives being lived in near real time, and of a future as unwritten then as ours is today * Guardian *","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49531676295511,"sku":"9781526632005","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781526632005.jpg?v=1731883970","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/on-the-cusp-days-of-62-9781526632005","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}