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On the Cusp

Days of '62

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On the Cusp

By: David Kynaston
Narrated by: Mark Meadows
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Bloomsbury presents On the Cusp by David Kynaston, read by Mark Meadows.

A TIMES BEST PAPERBACK OF 2022
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'Glorious ... It's rare to read anything so teeming with life' SPECTATOR, Books of the Year

'This is Kynaston at his best ... A rich and vivid picture of a nation in all its human complexity' IAN JACK

'A compulsive read ... Generous as well as sharp' MARGARET DRABBLE

'I was captivated by its brilliance' D. J. TAYLOR
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The ‘real’ Sixties began on 5 October 1962. On that remarkable Friday, the Beatles hit the world with their first single, ‘Love Me Do’, and the first James Bond film, Dr No, had its world premiere in London: two icons of the future heralding a social and cultural revolution.

On the Cusp, continuing David Kynaston’s groundbreaking history of post-war Britain, takes place during the summer and early autumn of 1962, in the charged months leading up to the moment that a country changed. The Rolling Stones’ debut at the Marquee Club, the last Gentlemen versus Players match at Lord’s, the issue of Britain’s relationship with Europe starting to divide the country, Telstar the satellite beaming live TV pictures across the world, ‘Telstar’ the record a siren call to a techno future – these were months thick with incident, all woven together here with an array of fresh contemporary sources, including diarists both famous and obscure.

Britain would never be the same again after these months. Sometimes indignant, sometimes admiring, always empathetic, On the Cusp evokes a world of seaside holidays, of church fetes, of Steptoe and
Son – a world still of seemingly settled social and economic certainties, but in fact on the edge of fundamental change.

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'Sparkles with voices from a vanished world ... An entrancing representation, full of exquisite detail' KATE WILLIAMS

'What a joy it has been to find myself wholly immersed in the richness of Kynaston's account ... Thrilling' JULIET NICOLSON©2021 David Kynaston (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC 20th Century Europe Great Britain Modern England United Kingdom War Socialism
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Continue the series
A Northern Wind cover art
A Northern Wind By: David Kynaston

Critic reviews

For me the best book this year was David Kynaston's glorious On the Cusp ... It’s rare to read anything so teeming with life - so many diverse voices offering their own glimpse of a world which, as Kynaston convincingly argues, was changing more dramatically than ever before or since. Many people have written about this period between the end of the Chatterley ban and the Beatles’ first LP, but few have given such a rich sense of living through it (Philip Hensher)
This is Kynaston at his best. A thousand glimpses of British life in 1962 produce a rich and vivid picture of a nation in all its human complexity, standing at the edge of great change. Beautifully woven, it yields surprises and fresh insights on every page – and in my case a blizzard of memories (Ian Jack)
A compulsive read. He is such a fine historian and sociologist, with an eye and ear for the unexpected, and a sharp sense of humour that makes the reader laugh aloud. It’s generous as well as sharp. For me, it was like reliving some of the most exciting and hopeful months of my life, an illuminating exploration of an important stretch of time. (Margaret Drabble)
'Tales of a New Jerusalem' has already established itself as the definitive history of post-war Britain. This latest instalment has all the eye-catching detail and informed synthesis that Kynaston's admirers have come to expect. I was captivated by its brilliance (D. J. Taylor)
A fascinating crystal of time, Kynaston's superb evocation of Britain ... sparkles with voices from a vanished world ... An entrancing representation, full of exquisite detail and unforgettable voices, On the Cusp invites us in, to the real lives behind historical trends, a door to Britain on the brink of great change (Kate Williams)
What a joy it has been to find myself wholly immersed in the richness of Kynaston’s account of those few amazing, ground-shifting months, just before we were all tipped into the drama of the 1960s proper. There is something hugely, hindsightingly thrilling in reading about the early seed-sowing of a story whose outcome we know so well
With his eagle eye, Kynaston selects details and incidents that serve as emblems of larger shifts in the zeitgeist ... He is a wonderfully diligent chronicler of the changing face of popular culture at the time ... Kynaston is a master at mixing key political and social movements with the more humdrum details of everyday life (Craig Brown)
All stars
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I found this a very innovative, original approach to a popular history book. Not only because it focused on a just one year - 1962, taken as Britain on the eve of the cultural revolution of the 60s - but because the title jumped from location to location, big event to ordinary person's diary. Maybe it's different reading this off the page, but the effect of being an audiobook was that this had a very disjointed feel. I had to get used to it and took the first hour or so to do so. You won't find deep analysis here but a series of snapshots of every day life and experience. The author has done a good job of including lots of different material and voices and if you're interested in the social and cultural history of mid-20th century Britain, or, a very specific moment in that history, this is very enjoyable. The title rarely, however, really explains the events it describes - maybe that is the idea - but it did feel a little intellectually lightweight at times. Entertaining and evocative, if not always tremendously informative.

Stream of consciousness history

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An awful lot of bizarre farming stuff and then lists of random people who went on to do stuff subsequently. Not really a social history of 1962 at all. A strange book which seemed to promise so much.

Disappointing

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