There are some great rock’n’roll movies out there – great in that they capture artists in their prime, performing the numbers they’re remembered for, at the time they were fresh and contemporary. On the down side, the ephemeral nature of any movie designed principally to exploit the popularity of a music genre means that […]
We didn’t specifically set out to have a ‘Vintage’ Christmas – that would be awfully contrived – but a mixture of opportunity and natural inclination propelled us through the festive season on a wave of retro joys.
For me, a last working week in London gave me the chance to escape the round of office […]
Hancock’s Half Hour has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. By the time I was 13, I was sneaking my little transistor radio down to our holiday hotel dining room to listen in to the summer re-runs on Radio 4 (egged on by my Dad), so I […]
As you’ll have read in last week’s instalment, a week’s stay in London for Mrs M meant time for her to do the shoe and fashion thing during the day, but it also gave us the chance to catch up with friends in the evenings. Little did we expect, though, that we would end […]
A week by myself in London, and Mr. M tied to the desk, meant that I had the opportunity to organise a girly outing to the Fashion and Textile Museum on 83 Bermondsey Street. I arranged to do the visit with my good friend, Sue, whom I met beforehand for a leisurely walk from London Bridge […]
After years quite literally on the shelf, suddenly it seems that Ladybird Books are rightly being feted everywhere as an iconic part of post-war British culture. Although the Ladybird ‘brand’ has been around for a century, it’s the uniform, 56-page, hardbacked little books that our midcentury generation associates with the name, each with its […]
Any self-respecting mid-century chap won’t be striving after that authentic look for long before finding himself exploring the greasy world of hair products. Sorry, horrible term that, conjuring up visions of all sorts of trendy gels. Fortunately, men’s grooming products of the 1940s and 50s have an altogether more robust feel to them, and […]
I didn’t start this blog as some kind of therapy, but every time I start to write about something that brightens my day, it feels like I’m baring my soul! But, here goes – I like buses: pretty much any bus from the 50s and early 60s, but particularly big red London Routemasters. I’m […]
A trip to London recently gave us the chance to check out the new House of Illustration gallery in the regenerated goods yards behind King’s Cross station featuring an exhibition of work by Mac Conner, one of New York’s original ‘Mad Men’ illustrators. In truth, the Mad Men epithet is an unfair one; although […]
Somewhere on one of the rolls of microfilm in the RAF archives is the record of my dad, who achieved the lofty rank of Leading Aircraftman, period of whole-time service from 3 December 1952 to 28 December 1954. One of millions of post-war National Servicemen, his Service career was almost entirely unremarkable – no […]
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