Mary Travers and the death of revolution

Alas, poor Mary, I did not know her well. She is dead of cancer at 72.

But her influence and that of Peter, Paul and herself on we sixties, flower power, bead-strewn, long-haired, Afghan-coated creatures, was huge.

She was part of that vortex of Clapton, the Who, the Beach Boys, Woodstock, Isle of Wight, LSE, LSD and all the rest, that seriously persuaded us that Europe was ripe for revolution.

There they were, in San Francisco, the Sorbonne and beyond, on the streets, against Vietnam, against apartheid and all the rest.

The passing of Mary is a passing of an extraordinary time of liberation and hope, and one that has not come again – and probably won’t.