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The Slow Turning Tide looks back to over a half a century ago, when Hastings and St Leonards faced the long task of recovering from WWII. Full of intriguing detail the book features stories of Hastings citizens, rebuilding their lives, homes and careers, marrying and raising families, while enduring austerity and nine post-war years of rationing and shortage of everything, including houses. Peacetime Hastings was the scene of two conflicts - the developers against the preservationists and the down-to-earth holiday traders opposing the die-hards, who yearned to see the town established as a select residential and coastal resort, a pre-war ideal that never really existed. In spite of controversy, Hastings soon reasserted itself as a popular holiday spot with a round of carnivals, processions, stage shows, galas, beauty contests and all the fun of the seaside. Throughout the book the commentator on post-war news is Frederick Goodsell, the editor of the Hastings and St Leonards Observer and also its weekly columnist under the pen name “Vigilant”. Goodsell, seeming part Churchill, part Mr Pooter, rails against the evils of progress and what he sees as the declining moral values of his town. |
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| Copyright© Victoria Seymour 2002-2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
