Lost in Words

  BBC1, BBC2 and ITV  — and sometimes nothing at all. In 1960s and ’70s Britain , television was a very different experience. Today, there a...

For many households in Britain there was a time when paying for electricity did not involve monthly bills, online accounts, or direct debits...

Long before official policies and colour-coded bins, we simply made do. In 1960s and 70s Britain , when it came to collecting our rubbish, t...

When tuning in legally required a licence. It was a paper licence that came in a variety of colours over the years, including light blue and...

  We made arrangements; “I’ll meet you there” was a firm commitment — and that was that. It’s almost impossible now to imagine daily life wi...

  The Big Freeze that was the biggest freeze, bringing the country to a standstill.   The winter of 1962–63 is remembered simply as the Big...

  Every writer is told, sooner or later, to find their authentic voice . That we should try to write true to the person that we are. For me,...

  Changing expectations and the quiet revolution inside British homes. In the 1960s and 70s Britain , housework was seen as " women’s w...

  Ashtrays, blue haze, and the smell of cigarette smoke were woven into everyday life. In the 1960s and 70s, smoking was a common activity i...

  Caravans, B&Bs, and seaside towns — before travel overseas became routine. In the sixties and seventies, for the majority of ‘Brits’, ...

No repeats, no recording — and the pain of missing an episode. In 1960s and 70s Britain , television was often an event, but it was also unf...

Pop bottle returns and the excitement of reclaiming a few pennies. Long before plastic bottles, ring-pull cans and multipack deals, fizzy ...

  It was New Year’s Day, sometime back in the late 1960s, and my school football shirt was dirty and needed cleaning. I had a big game comin...

  The Marx Brothers used to be on television over Christmas all the time when I was growing up. Their films, A Night at the Opera, A Day at ...

It’s Christmas, 2025 , but yesterday out shopping, I was reminded of the 1970s . No, it wasn’t the sound of Slade or Wizard singing about ...