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Deep into the Sixties
Tales of a New Jerusalem (Related to this series)
- Author
- David Kynaston
- Narrator
- David Kynaston, Mark Meadows
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 24 September 2026
- Run Time
- 27 hours 19 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
‘This glorious historical monument slows, expands and luxuriously stretches to encompass one of the defining moments of change in our history’ PHILIP HENSHER, SPECTATOR
'The poet of postwar Britain . . . In a league of his own' JONATHAN COE
‘My goodness, [the series] rockets along: every page contains something surprising, something funny, something sad' CRAIG BROWN, SUNDAY TIMES
The sixth book in the celebrated ‘Tales of a New Jerusalem’ series – named one of the best books of the 21st century by the Sunday Times
It’s the heart of the Sixties in Britain – the Beatles and the Stones vie at the top of the charts, England win the World Cup, and optimism and patriotism percolate through the streets. But this is not the full story of those years. Disaffection on the political left increasingly focuses on the escalating Vietnam War; and the ambitious hopes of Harold Wilson’s Labour government start to founder on the parlous state of the pound.
This was a time of looking both backwards and forwards – sweeping reforms to secondary education, huge swathes of urban redevelopment, and the irresistible rise of a confident, free-spending youth culture. Yet everyday life for many, especially beyond the big cities, bore striking resemblance to decades earlier.
Covering the short but intense period from after Churchill’s death in early 1965 to England’s Wembley triumph in July 1966, David Kynaston uses a plethora of contemporary sources, including diaries of ordinary people, to paint a richly nuanced picture of unrivalled detail. Deep Into the Sixties continues to revolutionise how we see post-war Britain.
Critics Review
-
Deep into the Sixties is as thrilling as ever – a funny, sad, moving portrait of a country struggling to come to terms with its destiny . . . Disarmingly poetic . . . The breadth of Kynaston’s knowledge and curiosity keeps the narrative buoyant. Wonderful details abound
SUNDAY TIMES
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David Kynaston doesn’t underplay the excitements of the period. But he rightly emphasises that the rotten old 50s – patriarchal, homophobic, class-divided and bigoted – wouldn’t just fade away . . . No living historian is as comprehensive . . . full of humour and never dull . . . The last section of the book is a tour de force . . . “I retreat upstairs to my bedroom and play a side of a Nancy Sinatra album, reckoning it will see both me and England through.” It did. The match was a triumph and so is the book
GUARDIAN, Book of the Day
-
Richly evokes the texture of a decade that was often dubbed “swinging” – but was, for many, a time of unsettling change and death of tradition . . . Bring[s] to life, almost moment by moment, two years of dramatic social and cultural change that in many parts of the UK was “only just starting to happen, and perhaps in some places not even that”. Britain exported sexy bands, actors and fashions. But at home, the optimism about Harold Wilson’s Labour government was wearing off. Employment was high but everything was getting more expensive . . . For the most part, chapters take the form of immersive, chronological accounts of everything that was happening everywhere. Political events run alongside entries from ordinary people’s diaries, childhood reminiscences by artists and writers such as Viv Albertine, Hanif Kureishi, Derek Jarman and Malorie Blackman . . . Kynaston’s triumph is to so thoroughly achieve the same effect that you don’t have to have lived it the first time round
FINANCIAL TIMES
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Remarkable . . . A sequence of colossally researched, witty, well-crafted, fun-loving and quietly impassioned social histories . . . Kynaston’s books are little (or rather, large) miracles of research, oozing with primary sources
THE TIMES
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Many of the most celebrated moments in ‘the Sixties’ are here present . . . Wonderfully interesting and enjoyable . . . An unforeseen magic is creeping over the sequence as it progresses . . . Most books I get sent to review get dispatched to the charity shop quite quickly; these books of Kynaston's have remained on a much-cherished shelf
SPECTATOR
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The sixth volume in David Kynaston’s history of postwar Britain covers the eighteen months between the death of Winston Churchill and England’s victory over Germany in the World Cup . . . Indeed, there was already hope in the air – what Kynaston describes as a palpable sense that possibilities were opening up . . . On the other hand – and this is the burden of Kynaston’s story – continuity was probably more marked than change . . . The daemon of Kynaston’s saga is in the detail. It is animated by minutiae, thumbnail sketches, arcane vignettes, evanescent slices of life . . . [A] magnificent series
LITERARY REVIEW
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In David Kynaston’s telling, the past is like a gigantic flicker-book
MAIL ON SUNDAY
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There is no better guide than David Kynaston’s epic chronicling of postwar Britain, the sixth volume of which is as immersively readable history as anyone could wish
SCOTSMAN
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An intimate and extensive dive into the heart of British life in the Sixties – a period today that is cherished for its great cultural richness. Yet Kynaston details how this ‘swinging’ era was far more unsettled than what The Beatles and a free-thinking youth might suggest. Progress was slow. In many ways the Sixties that we think of, he explains, would take until the Seventies to get going. Covering one landmark year - from after Churchill's death in early 1965 to England's Wembley triumph in July 1966 - Kynaston uses a plethora of contemporary and historic sources to demystify and inform. The latest instalment in his acclaimed series, Tales of a New Jerusalem, and named one of Sunday Times Best Books of the twenty first century, Deep into the Sixties makes very real this increasingly faraway time, interweaving the hopes and pains of domestic life with the global news stories that shaped the years to come
UNSEEN HISTORIES
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Deep into the Sixties: Britain 1965-66 is the latest volume in David Kynaston’s magisterial social history series . . . Based on troves of period documents, from personal diaries and newspaper reports to government surveys, each book moves chronologically through its allotted period . . . The reader is fully immersed in an era that, as Kynaston makes clear, seems more in hock to the war than Warhol; a nation less swinging than singing along to Julie Andrews . . . There are just so many fascinating nuggets of information
THE IDLER
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The most humane and even-handed chronicler of our time
GUARDIAN
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The poet of postwar Britain . . . Modern history has never been more popular, but the scale and detail of Kynaston's work puts him in a league of his own
JONATHAN COE, author of The Proof of My Innocence
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In the book trade there is a buzz word: "Kynastonesque". It describes big social history books, with expansive narrative sweeps and formidable sources, which celebrate domestic intimacies against the background of public events
GUARDIAN
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The latest increment of David Kynaston’s epic, ongoing and irresistible history of Britain from 1945 to 1979
GRANTA
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Another evocative, in many places eye-opening portrait of an era
BOOKBRUNCH
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Dazzling, compendious and finely judged. Post-war Britain has no finer chronicler
D. J. TAYLOR, author of Poppyland
-
Magnificent . . . The early Sixties have never been recounted so well
THE TIMES, Books of the Year
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- David Kynaston
- Narrator
- David Kynaston, Mark Meadows
- Duration
- 27 hours 19 minutes
- Release Date
- 24 September 2026
- ISBN
- 9781526657633
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Social and cultural history
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents Deep Into the Sixties by David Kynaston, read by Mark Meadows and David Kynaston.‘This glorious historical monument slows, expands and luxuriously stretches to encompass one of the defining moments of change in our history’ PHILIP HENSHER, SPECTATOR'The poet of postwar Britain . . . In a league of his own' JONATHAN COE‘My goodness, [the series] rockets along: every page contains something surprising, something funny, something sad' CRAIG BROWN, SUNDAY TIMESThe sixth book in the celebrated ‘Tales of a New Jerusalem’ series – named one of the best books of the 21st century by the Sunday TimesIt’s the heart of the Sixties in Britain – the Beatles and the Stones vie at the top of the charts, England win the World Cup, and optimism and patriotism percolate through the streets. But this is not the full story of those years. Disaffection on the political left increasingly focuses on the escalating Vietnam War; and the ambitious hopes of Harold Wilson’s Labour government start to founder on the parlous state of the pound.This was a time of looking both backwards and forwards – sweeping reforms to secondary education, huge swathes of urban redevelopment, and the irresistible rise of a confident, free-spending youth culture. Yet everyday life for many, especially beyond the big cities, bore striking resemblance to decades earlier.Covering the short but intense period from after Churchill’s death in early 1965 to England’s Wembley triumph in July 1966, David Kynaston uses a plethora of contemporary sources, including diaries of ordinary people, to paint a richly nuanced picture of unrivalled detail. Deep Into the Sixties continues to revolutionise how we see post-war Britain.
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