Introduction

The sixties’ in Britain is a construct with varied and contested meanings. The earliest and perhaps most persistent derives from a composite of media-constructed images evoking material prosperity, cultural innovation and youthful rebellion: the ‘Swinging London’ of Time magazine’s special April 1966 issue, with its King’s Road boutiques, Mayfair art galleries and fashionable glitterati; the enamelled butterflies of the summer of love; the hippie cult with its vocabulary of love and peace, its ambience of marijuana and sitar music; or protesting students battling with police outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square.