Mary Chamberlain writes about the Partisan Coffee House, the socialist cafe which, in its four-year existence, became a creative centre which transformed the political, intellectual and cultural scene in the 1960s. At a time when espresso bars were the rage, and a new, young clientele had cash to spare, the Partisan Coffee House opened its […]
Tell Me How It Ends by VB Grey
Delia Maxwell is an international singing sensation, an icon of 1950s glamour who is still riding high on the new 60s scene. Adored by millions, all men want to be with her, all women want to be her. But one woman wants it maybe a little too much… Lily Brooks has watched Delia all her […]
The Keeper of Songs by Fiona Mountain
1967: Enigmatic young folk singer Molly Marrison disappears on the cusp of fame. 2002: Silva is working as a housemaid at Chatsworth House when her father suddenly dies, leaving her with one instruction – find Molly. The only clue is a haunting song, centuries old, that Molly recorded before she vanished. Silva needs the help of […]
Bigger than Profumo! ‘The scandal that history forgot’
In the mid-1960s the Conservative Party was still recovering from the Profumo affair when a new scandal was uncovered… and quickly covered up again, with the help of some unexpected allies. Historian Daniel Smith, author of The Peer and the Gangster, tells Historia how the story was quickly and conveniently ‘forgotten’. There was a peer, […]
Tell Me How It Ends by VB Grey
Delia Maxwell is an international singing sensation, an icon of 1950s glamour who is still riding high on the new 60s scene, adored by millions. All men want to be with her, all women want to be her. But one woman wants it maybe a little too much… Lily Brooks has watched Delia all her […]
Tell Me How It Ends: writing a film noir novel
VB Grey pays homage to the post-war American movies that inspired her novel, Tell Me How It Ends. Tell Me How It Ends is set in London in that moment in 1963 when the 1950s finally gave way to the Swinging Sixties. The young men and women who swept to fame in music, film, photography […]
The Peer and the Gangster: A Very British Cover-up by Daniel Smith
In July 1964, the Sunday Mirror ran a front-page story headlined: Peer and a Gangster: Yard Enquiry. While the article withheld the names of the subjects, the newspaper reported that the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police had ordered an investigation into an alleged homosexual relationship between ‘a household name’ from the House of Lords and […]