Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes
£10.99The compelling story of the Ashes Test match that encapsulated an age-old rivalry between two nations at the dawn of an era
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A northern wind
£14.99How much can change in less than two and a half years? In the case of Britain in the Sixties, the answer is: almost everything. From the seismic coming of the Beatles to a sex scandal that rocked the Tory government to the arrival at No 10 of Harold Wilson, a prime minister utterly different from his Old Etonian predecessors. ‘A Northern Wind’ brings to vivid life the period between October 1962 and February 1965. Drawing upon an unparalleled array of diaries, newspapers and first-hand recollections, Kynaston’s masterful storytelling refreshes familiar events – the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Big Freeze, the assassination of JFK, the funeral of Winston Churchill – while revealing in all their variety the experiences of the people living through this history.
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Richie Benaud’s blue suede shoes
£22.00August 1961. Old Trafford, Manchester. The three previous Tests of the series: a draw, a win for Australia, a win for England. A wonderful snapshot of a game on cusp, with everything to play for. Watching on, an entire nation sits on tenterhooks as England, led by Peter May, seem on the verge of victory. Yet, somehow, they manage to throw it all away. Australia, led by their charismatic skipper Richie Benaud, storm to victory. The difference between May and Benaud is highlighted the evening before when Benaud, dashing and free-thinking, strolled out to inspect the wicket wearing a pair of blue suede shoes. Such sartorial boldness would have been unthinkable from his opposite number known for sporting a sharp blazer and cravat. This book marks a vivid recreation of five days of sharply fluctuating fortunes and weaves the narrative of the match into a broader tapestry of social change in the 60s.
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A northern wind
£30.00How much can change in less than two and a half years? In the case of Britain in the Sixties, the answer is: almost everything. From the seismic coming of the Beatles to a sex scandal that rocked the Tory government to the arrival at No 10 of Harold Wilson, a prime minister utterly different from his Old Etonian predecessors. ‘A Northern Wind’ brings to vivid life the period between October 1962 and February 1965. Drawing upon an unparalleled array of diaries, newspapers and first-hand recollections, Kynaston’s masterful storytelling refreshes familiar events – the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Big Freeze, the assassination of JFK, the funeral of Winston Churchill – while revealing in all their variety the experiences of the people living through this history.
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On the Cusp
£9.99The ‘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,’ continuing David Kynaston’s groundbreaking history of post-war Britain ‘Tales of a New Jerusalem’, is about Britain during the summer and early autumn of 1962, in the charged months leading up to that plates-shifting moment.
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On the Cusp
£18.99The ‘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,’ continuing David Kynaston’s groundbreaking history of post-war Britain ‘Tales of a New Jerusalem’, is about Britain during the summer and early autumn of 1962, in the charged months leading up to that plates-shifting moment.
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Shots in the Dark
£9.99Brimming with wisdom and humour, David Kynaston’s diaries written over one football season offer up his most personal take on social history to date. David Kynaston was seven and a half years old when he attended his first Aldershot match in the early months of 1959. So began a deep attachment to the game and a lifelong loyalty to an obscure, small-town football club. Though as he sits down to write his diaries almost 60 years on, he reflects that life might have been simpler if his father had never taken him to that first match at the Rec. A testament to the ways in which fandom gives solidity and security to our lives, particularly in these bewildering and rapidly changing times, ‘Shots in the Dark’ gets to the heart of what it means to be a devoted follower of a sports team.