Category: Post war Britain
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Flashes of Doubt
Some say it was during the 1960s that the idea of ‘the generation gap’ entered into popular usage. It became a useful phrase that summed up the differing attitudes towards politics, behaviour, music, fashion and virtually everything else between the young and the old — with the ‘old’ including everyone over 30. Children born after…
Isabella Muir
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Whispers of Fortune
For many people across the world, 1961 offered hope and optimism. For others not so much. On 20 January that year, John Fitzgerald Kennedy became President of the United States. In Whispers of Fortune we learn how the words of his inaugural speech crossed the Atlantic to be heard by a young woman who was…
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What is the point of history?
Why study the past when it is just that – past, gone, over and done with – or is it? There are numerous reasons that historians cite for their interest in the past, probably as many reasons as there are historians! Here’s a few suggestions that various historians have cited, to start us off: Let’s…
Isabella Muir
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More and more and more
I read a book a few weeks ago that has turned my head! As I dived into each chapter, I learned more and more frightening statistics that expose the reality of the so-called ‘energy transition’. More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy by Jean-Baptiste Fressoz (2024) is an eye-opening text that considers the…
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Cars, cars and more cars
In Flashes of Doubt – set in 1962 Britain – we get a glimpse of the thoughts of William Arnold as he remembers the warning his father had given him years earlier about the rise and rise of the motor car. The route William used to take each workday, from his cottage in Burton Street…
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The haves and the have-nots
In every society in the world there is division between those who have and those who have not. Even in the most equitable society, where resources and labour are shared, there will be some who have greater ability in one sphere or another, for example, they may be better organisers, or more successful farmers. But…
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What is real?
In our own way, we all need something to believe in. Walter, one of my favourite fictional characters, looks to nature in his attempts to understand the world. We first meet Walter in The Forgotten Children, when Emily travels to the isle of Anglesey, and on a clifftop walk she encounters a gentle stranger… ‘Today…
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Finding a voice
Last week we asked, What if new isn’t always better? looking at some of the implications of the Paris Peace Conference and the changes imposed on nations by the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations. It comes as no surprise that peoples who had suddenly gained new ‘masters’ found themselves questioning their rights,…
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What if new isn’t always better?
Is new always better? Are there some changes that can be justified in order to take the world in a new and different direction, or does human nature result in us merely duplicating past mistakes?
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Looking back to the future
If you have read any of my books, you will know I have a fascination with the recent past. My stories are all set during two eras: the Second World War years and the vibrant decade of the 1960s. Writing any fiction, whether about then or now, involves a certain amount of research. In fact,…
Isabella Muir 