In July 1969, while the Rolling Stones played a free concert in Hyde Park, Alan Johnson and his young family left West London to start a new life. The Britwell Estate in Slough, apparently notorious among the locals, in fact came as a blessed relief after the tensions of Notting Hill, and the local community welcomed them with open arms. Alan had become a postman the previous year, and in order to support his growing family took on every bit of overtime he could, often working twelve-hour shifts six days a week. It was hard work, but not without its compensations - the crafty fag snatched in...

Notting Hill has inspired a large number of books and has often made national news - though not always for the right reasons. It has forever been an area of contrast between rich and poor, and has undergone almost constant change since it was developed from farmland in the mid-nineteenth century to today's urban landscape. Roger Rogowski's book records the memories of people who lived in working-class Notting Hill in their own words, before the substantial changes of the 1960s, including the mass demolition of slums, the construction of the Westway, the growth of the Notting Hill Carnival...