Thirties Britain was a land of contrasts, at once a nation rendered hopeless by the global Depression, unemployment and international tensions, yet also a place of suburban home owners aspiring to have a baby Austin in the garage. In this talk, Juliet Gardiner examines this restless, uncertain, ambitious decade through the experiences she has found in newspapers, memoirs, letters and diaries. She will look at the British people of the 1930s, part-mesmerised by modernism, leisure, glamour and sensation yet, at the same time, imbued with a pervasive awareness of loss of Britain's influence in the world and of accepted political, social and cultural signposts.

Juliet Gardiner is a former editor of History Today. She has been an academic and publisher and is now a full-time author and broadcaster. Her most recent books include Wartime: Britain 1939-1945, The Thirties: An Intimate History and The Blitz: The British Under Attack.

This event was organised in partnership with Newham Bookshop.