White Heat

A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties

By: Dominic Sandbrook

Narrated by: Dominic Sandbrook, Roger Davis

Harold Wilson's famous reference to 'white heat' captured the optimistic spirit of a society in the midst of breathtaking change. From the gaudy pleasures of Swinging London to the tragic bloodshed in Northern Ireland, from the intrigues of Westminster to the drama of the World Cup, British life seemed to have taken on a dramatic new momentum.

The memories, images and colourful personalities of those heady times still resonate today: mop-tops and mini-skirts, strikes and demonstrations, Carnaby Street and Kings Road, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath, Mary Quant and Jean Shrimpton, Enoch Powell and Mary Whitehouse, Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger.

In this wonderfully rich and readable historical narrative, Dominic Sandbrook looks behind the myths of the Swinging Sixties to unearth the contradictions of a society caught between optimism and decline.©2006 Dominic Sandbrook

Critic reviews

An active pleasure to read. This is a deftly written and evocative account of the day before yesterday

A substantial contribution to our understanding of the social and political history of modern Britain

This is history of a commendably inclusive range

Highly entertaining

A very well narrated history of the 60’s, putting in it to context. The research must have been extensive, giving the reader both long lines of history dottet with details.