1947 was a momentous year in Britain. For three months, people endured the worst winter in living memory, with drastic fuel shortages and power cuts, and continuing food rationing post-WWII. Heavy snow gave way to widespread flooding in the spring, and by the summer, the economic crisis had deepened; the Chancellor of the Exchequer even imposed a savage tax increase on tobacco. But against this backdrop, a programme of ambitious and far-reaching reforms was being rolled out, from town and country planning to the institution of the National Health Service. Amid the misery of freezing homes, meagre food supplies and threadbare clothing, the British were on the brink of a new era of social transformation. Drawing upon local newspapers, contemporary articles, films and the Mass Observation Project, this book reveals how ordinary people navigated, survived and found hope in the 1940s.
