An insight into British life in Coronation year. Here is a picture of Britain preparing for and celebrating the crowning of its new, young queen. It is an exploration in words and pictures of a nation gradually returning to prosperity after the ravages of war, increasingly confident of its future under the new monarch. This was the year that Churchill, the Prime Minister, was knighted and the nation's then favourite grandmother, Queen Mary, died. But it was also when Crick and Watson developed the double-helix model for DNA, Kinsey's report on the sexual practices of American women was issued and the first James Bond novel (Casino Royale) appeared. Above all, the Conquest of Everest, the other crowning achievement of 1953, was announced to the British public on Coronation Day itself. There are chapters on home life and leisure, childhood and entertainment as well as an in-depth study - from Westminster Abbey to street corner, of preparations for and the course of the day the Queen was crowned.