Chalk Valley History Festival

Why

Alan Johnson’s childhood was not so much difficult as unusual – particularly for a man who was destined to become Home Secretary. Not in respect of the poverty, which was shared with many living in Britain’s post-war slums, but in its transition from being part of a two-parent family to having a single mother and then to no parents at all… And, likewise, Justin Webb’s childhood was far from ordinary. Between his mother’s undiagnosed psychological problems, and his stepfather’s untreated ones, life at home was dysfunctional at best. But beyond the personal, this discussion will reveal the national background of growing up in the 1960s and 1970s – strikes, inflation and IRA bombings. A time in which attitudes towards mental illness, parenting and masculinity were worlds apart from the attitudes we have today.