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Among the highlights of the 1950s: Audrey Hepburn, dressed as a tulip, dances in Sauce Piquant, 500 Morris Minors on London dockside awaiting shipment to Canada, Queen Elizabeth II is crowned, CND protestors march to Aldermaston and Ernest Marples opens the M1.

The years between 1 January 1940 and 31 December 1949 saw the country on the brink of disaster, then celebrating victory in the Second World War and beginning years of austerity – but with welcome diversions: a royal wedding, the 1948 Olympics at Wembley and television.

In 1780, the anti-Papist Gordon riots left 1,000 dead and London in flames; half a century later, Parliament passed the Catholic Emancipation Act. This narrative history charts the struggles that brought about that conclusion. It profiles the key players, including George III, a staunch opponent of emancipation; the political rivals Wellington and Peel; and the Irish campaigner Daniel O’Connell; and examines the conflict between the right to practise one’s religion and allegiance to the state.