This work is set in June, 1953. England is gripped by Coronation fever as the young Queen Elizabeth is crowned. At the Palace Hotel on the south coast, owned for generations by the King family, the eldest daughter, Libby, prepares to host a Coronation party - her first big event as proprietor. Among the citizens of Kingshaven gathering at the hotel for the celebrations is a reluctant guest, Michael Quinn, a young school teacher recently arrived in the town from the North, who has only accepted the invitation under pressure from his socially ambitious wife, Sylvia. When he meets Claudia, also an outsider in Kingshaven's insular world, there is an instant, electric attraction between them which will irrevocably change the course of their lives. From the New Look to the mini-skirt, from flower arranging to flower power, "The Time Of Our Lives" follows the events of a town whose events seem uncannily to reflect the history of the nation.