More than a decade after the end of the Second World War, Britain was still reeling from the loss of life, the devastation, and the underlying fear that such hard-earned peace might be short-lived. But then a new decade arrived, bringing with it a generation of youngsters who believed they could put the past behind them and surge forward to a better life.

Attitudes begin to change during the early years of the 1960s, with significant events acting as indicators of changes that to follow. Change in themselves, but also forerunners of even greater change. The series of Mountfield Road Mysteries explores some of those changes from the perspective of tenants who come to live in a tiny bedsit at Number 1, Mountfield Road, in the Sussex seaside town of Hastings. The tenants have little in common, except for their decision to rent a room from a certain Mr Humphrey, a landlord who is a stickler for traditions and protocols that were fast disappearing.

In Storms of Change, the first book in the series we meet Marcus Chase, a young man keen to throw off the constraints of his childhood and teenage years, breaking free from his home in London and moving south, to Hastings.

Let’s hear from Marcus in this extract…

I left behind one routine to establish my own. Not for me a repetitive cycle of Sunday roast, cold meat on Mondays, mince on Tuesdays, through to fish on Fridays. Never again would I need to listen to Dad bemoaning his regular Saturday losses at the greyhound track, or ensure my shoes were polished for Sunday mass.

There was so much I had turned my back on I wondered how long it would take me to fill the space.

[…]

I had changed my address, my job, even my friends, but what risks had I taken? Had I unwrapped the Marcus Chase who had spent his life until now following the rules and regulations set by family and school? Yes, I had stepped away from parental influence, but there was still a little bird of conscience sitting on my shoulder watching and waiting (maybe even hoping?) for me to step out of line.

Marcus has his eyes opened about the dramatic political and social events going on around him when he makes friends with his neighbours, Gilly and Fred…

Conversations spanned topics that were new and fresh, to me at least. Gilly and Fred introduced me to their friends and we moved from table to table, joining in heated debates about politics and social injustice. More American troops had been sent to Vietnam to fight a war that seemed impossible for either side to win. In Britain, National Service had finally been abolished, for which I was more than grateful. I tried to imagine how it would feel to come face to face with an enemy soldier, having to decide which was more important – their life or mine?

I knew little of the racial segregation that existed in America and South Africa and was too embarrassed to admit my ignorance. Instead, I listened while Fred raged about it.

‘They’ve banned native black South Africans from just about everything, removed them from their homes, forcing them to live in segregated neighbourhoods. Blacks and whites aren’t even allowed to marry each other. No one should be allowed to dictate where you live or who you marry.’ His forceful declarations were often accompanied with a fist thumping the table. It was a side of Fred I hadn’t seen until then.

‘You need to read, To Kill a Mocking Bird,’ one of the others said. ‘It shines a light on what’s going on in America, especially down south. More than a hundred years since they abolished slavery and what’s changed, eh?’

Another book that had been the topic of intense discussion was a novel due to be the subject of a trial in the Old Bailey. It seemed that the goings-on in Lady Chatterley’s Lover had upset too many influential people. Was it truly ‘obscene’ as was argued by the Director of Public Prosecutions, or, in the words of the defence, a work of literary merit? After all, the author was respected; his novel raised serious issues of class prejudice, inequality, and attitudes to sex that some said belonged to the Victorian era.

What were the rights and wrongs of the case? I struggled to grasp the arguments with sufficient understanding. Gilly understood it alright. When it came to the Lady Chatterley debate, Gilly’s voice was the loudest of all.

Find out how Marcus’s story ends in Storms of Change, as he joins others of his generation as they rail against the mistakes of the past, while seeking ways to achieve a brighter future.

My next post looks at the fact behind the fiction of the second book in the series of Mountfield Road Mysteries – Whispers of Fortune – which captures what it was like to live in Britain during 1961 when there was so much uncertainty and yet so much hope.

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