From rationing to reality TV – how Britain and the monarchy changed in Elizabeth's lifetime

In the era of the Queen's coronation, the UK was a land of deprivation and deference, but profound social and economic change was about to transform the nation and then the monarchy

On the day of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, on 2 June 1953, Marian Raynham, living in the Surrey town of Surbiton with her husband and two children, recorded the celebration lunch they had that day. Nothing gives a greater flavour of the times - or of how much life in Britain has changed since then.

Listened to it all," Raynham told the chroniclers of Mass Observation, the forerunners of public opinion testing. I took advantage of the religious part to put the lunch on the table. They loved the lunch - tom [-ato] soup, a big salad with Nut Meat brawn and strawberry blancmange and jam and top of milk." She went on to spring clean behind the couch: did room, later crocheted, later rested."