A triumph of scholarship and entertainment. The research work that has gone into this history is just astounding - the author draws on a huge range of sources including newspapers, books, pamphlets, academic research, market research and personal diaries and brings it all together in a fantastically entertaining fashion. I have to say that that nowhere in these 430 pages was I bored, every page was interesting.
In a strange way I find history of this nature quite comforting - everything is neatly laid out and explained with the benefit of hindsight and I already knew the big themes so it was the tiny details of daily, political and cultural life that was so interesting.
Also, even though this was all a long time ago my own history intersects with some of the young people in this story, although they were considerably older by the time that I knew of them!
I’m really looking forward to the remaining three meaty volumes and I’m glad that I’ve offered them shelf space. Well done Mr. Kynaston!