Twenties London
Sex, Shopping & Suburban Dreams
By Mike Hutton
October 2011
Book Guild
ISBN: 9781846245770
Distributed by Trans-Atlantic Publications
221 pages
, Illustrated
$27.50 Paper original
The twenties sandwiched between two world wars and eras of austerity was a remarkable decade. It was a time of change: out with the old, in with the new and hang the consequences. And where better to witness this remarkable epoch than the world's greatest capital city, London, a metropolis in transformation. In this affectionate recollection of twenties London, Mike Hutton puts the city under the microscope, examining all facets of metropolitan life from the goodtime party antics of the Bright Young Things to the seedy underbelly of East End gangland.
En route he encounters flapper girls and aesthetes, jazz stars and film legends, but also everyday folk going about their everyday post-war business. With a light, often comic touch, but underpinned by a wealth of historic detail, he chronicles London's social, sporting, retail, theatrical, gastronomic and fashion worlds with plenty of anecdotes to amuse and enlighten. As the decade moves towards its denouement he also examines the growing exodus from the city limits to the country fringes as the suburban dream of Middle England takes hold.