1956: a defining year that heralded the modern era. Britain & France occupied Suez, & the Soviet Union tanks rolled into Hungary. Nikita Khrushchev`s`secret speech` exposed the crimes of Stalin, & the Royal Court Theatre unveiled John Osborne`s Look Back in Anger. Rock `n` roll music was replacing the gentle pop songs of Mum & Dad`s generation, & it was the first full year of independent television. As post-war assumptions were shattered, the upper middle class was shaken & the communist left was shocked, radical new ideas about sex, skiffle & socialism emerged, & attitudes shifted on an unprecedented scale
- precipitated by the decline of Attlee`s Britain & the first intimations of Thatcher`s. From politics & conflict to sport & entertainment, this extraordinary book transports us back in time on a whirlwind journey through the history, headlines & happenings of this most momentous of years, vividlycapturing the revolutionary spirit of 1956
- the year that changed Britain.