Mike Hutton: 3 books

The most momentous decade in London’s colourful history was one of huge contrasts. The war provided a heady brew of fear, bravery, stoicism, cowardice and crime, set to a background of popular music from Glenn Miller and Vera Lynn. To some, London was vibrant and exciting, but even during the war...

Soho has always been a source of fascination. A district quite unlike any other in London, where glamour meets squalor and then often merges. It is different, never mirroring the changes of its more fashionable neighbours. It seduces and destroys in equal measures. In 1932, under the ownership of...

After the trauma of the Blitz and wartime restrictions, London embraced the arrival of a new decade. Austerity was slow to loosen its grip, but the Festival of Britain pointed a tentative way forward. Two years later saw the birth of a new Elizabethan era that was greeted with an almost naïve enthusiasm....