Promised You A Miracle

[Land Waster]

Just started reading Andy Beckett's account of the years 1980-82 in the UK, in some ways a sequel to his excellent account of the 1970s, 'When the Lights Went Out' (as previously discussed on here).

A couple of chapters in, and we begin to see the shift in thinking that a 'small number of determined people' are propagating. This of course chimes with the noise coming from 10 Downing Street, as Thatcher's revolution begins to take hold.

This is graphically illustrated by the arrival of the Austin Metro in 1980, with this infamous advert.

Something was stirring in Middle England...

[Borracho]

Promised You A Miracle

Great book. Mad interview in it with one of Thatcher's economic gurus, who is now aged about 75 and still lecturing in some university down in Wales.

[Land Waster]

Promised You A Miracle

Heh, that would be Patrick Minford, he of the 'machine gun laugh'.

Just finished reading the chapter called 'Doom City', which deals with the Cold War and nuclear issues of the early 80s.

It's easy to forget just how much fear and paranoia there were over nuclear weapons at this time. The lamentable 'Protect and Survive' videos and the doomed Eastlays underground complex in Wiltshire are just two examples.

[imp]

Promised You A Miracle

I've just devoured this magnificent book. I'd no idea about the Eastlays underground complex. It's a thorough and riveting piece of extended journalism from start to finish - fascinating interviews, a perfectly balanced range of topics, and just the right tone in his analysis. You think you know all about an era because you lived through it, but it turns out that half of it you'd no idea about, and then there's a lot more besides that you'd forgotten.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Promised You A Miracle

I'd broadly echo imp's summary including the comments about the relation of the book to personal memory/experience. There were times towards the end, though, when I felt that I was wading laboriously through dull bits just so that I could tick the book off as completely read, having gone to the effort of reading the interesting parts (85 to 90 per cent of it). In particular, there was more about the careers of some television producers/entrepreneurs than I was ever going to be remotely interested in.

[Satchmo Distel]

Promised You A Miracle

The book is patchy and does not give you the rich texture of diaries and contemporary reports that you get in Kynaston's work. However, I actually liked the part on The Friday Alternative, which I think is the topic of EEG's post above. I would have liked more of that and less of the dumbed down political science, which was a bit like a Stuart Maconie book of very broad strokes.