A Taste of Sparta (1954-1959) : The Second Volume of a Memoir

Richard Graves is a biographer who has now turned the spotlight on his own life and times. Here, the personal experiences of the author are from a very different world, when there was no Internet, no smartphones, and no social media. He details the education, both religious and secular, that he received, and the isolated life that he led at boarding school. Here are described the seaside holidays he went on, the books, poems, newspapers and comics that he read, the wireless programmes and the songs to which he listened, and the television and films that he watched.

Here too are such events as the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, the Malayan Emergency, the Suez crisis, the Cyprus Emergency and, with the launch of Sputnik 1, mankind’s first steps into Space. We also glimpse the leading politicians and celebrities of the day such as Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Lady Docker and Marilyn Monroe.

Here, in short, is a fascinating portrait of what it was like to live through those times of long-ago.