The 1950s. The mid-point of the twentieth century. When those born in the nineteenth century met their grandchildren who would live in the twenty-first. A pivotal moment, certainly. And is it really true? Had we ‘never had it so good’, as Prime Minister Macmillan said? This book is the story of Swansea in those years, when post-war austerity moved towards the indulgence of the sixties. A period of affluence and full employment, a time of increased confidence and optimism. A time when Swansea began to rebuild itself after terrible wartime devastation and looked to a bright future, despite an exhausted valley where the trains crept slowly between the twisted slag heaps alongside a poisoned river. Everything would soon be so much better. The future was so bright… Swansea in the 1950s follows the development of Swansea through this momentous decade. The story of how Swansea played its own part in the big news of the era – the Coronation, the Atom Bomb, Rock Around the Clock, the Korean War, Sputnik, the Suez Crisis and television, – and how it managed its own triumphs and disasters.

Geoff Brookes was born in 1951 in Sheffield and graduated from Leicester University in 1972. After completing teacher training in Birmingham and working for a number of years in Leicester, he moved to Swansea in 1981 when appointed Head of English in Dillwyn Llewelyn Comprehensive School. Geoff retired from his post in summer 2011, and after a period of time as a consultant working in the local authority he is now an author. He received a nomination as Columnist of the Year (Business Media category) in the PPA Awards 2011 for his work with the TES.