The Thirties: An Intimate History of Britain

J.B. Priestley famously described the 'three Englands' he saw in the 1930s: Old England; nineteenth-century England and the new, post-war England. Thirties Britain was, indeed, a world of contrasts, ultimately torn between the image of a nation rendered hopeless by the Depression, unemployment and international tensions, and that of a Britain of complacent suburban home-owners with a baby Austin in every garage.

Now Juliet Gardiner, acclaimed author of the award-winning 'Wartime', provides a fresh perspective on that restless, uncertain, ambitious decade, bringing the complex experience of thirties Britain alive through newspapers, magazines, memoirs, letters, diaries and interviews.

Gardiner captures the essence of a people part-mesmerised by 'modernism' in architecture, art, in the proliferation of 'dream palaces', the insistence on fitness and fresh air, the obsession with speed, the growth and regimentation of leisure, the democratisation of the countryside, the celebration of elegance, glamour and sensation. Yet, at the same time, this was a nation imbued with a pervasive awareness of loss - of Britain's influence in the world, of accepted political, social and cultural signposts and finally, of peace itself.