George Miller talks to David Kynaston
George Miller talks to David Kynaston about the second volume in his ‘Tales of a New Jerusalem’ series, Family Britain.
David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. He has been a professional historian since 1973 and has written fifteen books, including The City of London (1994-2001), a widely acclaimed four-volume history, and W.G.’s Birthday Party, an account of the Gentleman vs. the Players at Lord’s in July 1898. He is the author of Austerity Britain, 1945-51, the first title in a series of books covering the history of post-war Britain (1945-1979) under the collective title ‘Tales of a New Jerusalem’. He is currently a visiting professor at Kingston University.
Here, George Miller talks to him about the second volume in the series, Family Britain.
July 22nd, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Your accounts of open prejudice remind me–painfully–of my experiences as a disabled person in London in the early ’70s. I was routinely mistaken as drunk, particularly when looking for accommodation. Even when I tried to explain I had cerebral palsy, I was not believed. Eventually I resorted to relying on friends to find bedsits on my behalf. Naturally, pubs were forbidden me. Indeed, I became teetotal in order to be cold sober when I was stopped by police. As you may well concede, even this was a deal below finding work as a disabled person–a struggle that continues to this day for a class of person without my education. General ignorance might be the short explanation. In relation to your study, it relates to your point that anyone out of the ordinary was subject to all forms of discrimination, a most discouraging corrective to Orwell’s view that the English are a gentle race. Thank you for reading this and congratulations on your tremendous social history.