“Those were the days.” Everyone has heard it, and most have said it. But were they? Particularly in the largely free parts of the world, today invariably exceeds yesterday.
Looking back to 100 years ago, London was apparently glowing. “Bright Young Things” were the thing. Novels and books have been written about this period. One that stands out for me is D.J. Taylor’s 2007 book Bright Young People, about post-WWI social life in London. Taylor wrote of the well-born of that time and their post-war doings, but seemed to do so with a somber wink of the eye. Life quite simply wasn’t that great. He reported that, among other things, “the number of people in the United Kingdom whose annual income, net of tax, exceeded L10,000 fell by two-thirds, from around 4,000 to 1,300.” Basically, a mindless war had ended a few years before, but the war on work continued.
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