Kitty & Al Tait

On The Cusp: Days of ‘62

The ‘real’ Sixties began on 5 October 1962. On that remarkable Friday, the Beatles hit the world with their first single, Love Me Do, and the first James Bond film, Dr No, had its world premiere in London: two icons of the future heralding a social and cultural revolution. On the Cusp continues David Kynaston’s ground-breaking history of post-war Britain and takes place during the summer and early autumn of 1962.  These were charged months, thick with incident, including The Rolling Stones’ debut at the Marquee Club, the last Gentlemen versus Players match at Lord’s, and the issue of Britain’s relationship with Europe starting to divide the country.

Britain would never be the same again after these months. Sometimes indignant, sometimes admiring, always empathetic, On the Cusp evokes a world of seaside holidays, of church fetes, of Steptoe and Son – a world still of seemingly settled social and economic certainties, but in fact on the edge of fundamental change.

Interviewed by Sarah Ward.

Broken Heartlands: A Journey Through Labour’s Lost England

Sebastian Payne, Whitehall Editor for the Financial Times, makes a political road-trip through ten constituencies that made up Labour’s ‘red wall’. Originally from the North East himself, he sets out to uncover the real story of what turned these traditionally Labour seats to the Conservatives for the first time in living memory at the 2019 election. On the way, he explores significant and nuanced social and economic forces decades in the making, including generational shift, the changing nature of work, de-industrialisation and struggling public services.

In conversation with Iain Dale

Beyond a Fringe: Tales from a Reformed Establishment Lackey

From his prep school years, through the Army to Cambridge, the City of London and the Palace of Westminster, Mitchell has passed through a series of British institutions at a time of furious social and political change.  In the process he has become rather more cynical about the British Establishment. Beyond a Fringe reflects on the perils and pleasures of loyalty, whether to a party, to individuals or to one’s own principles. Expect engaging honesty and hilarious political anecdotes with irresistible insider gossip from the heart of Westminster.