23%OFF
Stock image for illustration purposes only - book cover, edition or condition may vary.
Promised You A Miracle: Why 1980-82 Made Modern Britain
Andy Beckett
€ 16.99
€ 13.11
FREE Delivery in Ireland
Description for Promised You A Miracle: Why 1980-82 Made Modern Britain
Paperback. The early 1980s in Britain were a time of hope, and of dread: of Cold War tension and imminent conflict, when crowds in the street could mean an ecstatic national celebration or an inner-city riot. The author recreates this moment of transition, with all its potential and uncertainty: the first precarious years of Margaret Thatcher's government. Num Pages: 464 pages. BIC Classification: 1DBK; 3JJPN; HBJD1; HBLW3. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 131 x 327 x 24. Weight in Grams: 346.
A vivid, seminal portrait of early 1980s Britain: a period that changed Britain forever The early 1980s in Britain were a time of hope, and of dread: of Cold War tension and imminent conflict, when crowds in the street could mean an ecstatic national celebration or an inner-city riot. Here, Andy Beckett recreates an often misunderstood moment of transition, with all its potential and uncertainty: the first precarious years of Margaret Thatcher's government. By the end of 1982, the country was changing, leaving the kinder, more sluggish postwar Britain decisively behind, and becoming the country we have lived in ever since: assertive, commercially driven, outward-looking, often harsher than its neighbours.
Product Details
Publisher
Penguin
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2016
Condition
New
Number of Pages
464
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
ISBN
9780241956885
SKU
V9780241956885
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days
Ref
99-25
About Andy Beckett
Andy Beckett writes for the Guardian. He has also written for the Economist, The New York Times magazine, the London Review of Books and the Independent on Sunday. His previous books are When the Lights Went Out and Pinochet in Piccadilly.
Reviews for Promised You A Miracle: Why 1980-82 Made Modern Britain
The appeal of Beckett's book is that he succeeds in showing rather than merely telling us why his chosen period was pivotal in the life of the nation. For those who lived through all the turbulence, as I did, it reawakens memories and helps reconnect you with the person you once were. For those who did not, or who cannot remember, it recounts well how an old nation roused itself from slumber and dared to change the course on which it seemed set
Jason Cowley
New Statesman
[Beckett] mixes history, journalism and autobiography. He has a strong sense of place
Richard Vinen
Literary Review
Beckett has a fine eye for detail
Andrew Neather
Evening Standard
Those who lived through the early eighties - who spent all that time wondering what the hell was going to happen next - will enjoy Beckett's work because it validates what at times seemed like a waking dream, or sometimes a waking nightmare. For those too young, the book is valuable as a reminder that there were other times in recent history when it seemed everything was beginning to slide
Jamie Kenny
Big Issue
[A] gripping mixture of contemporary history and vivid reportage
John Campbell
Independent
A breezy and very intelligent anatomy of the years 1980-82 . . . This is not conventional political history - and is all the better for it. Beckett is as interested in the flowering of independent television production companies and the regeneration of London's Docklands as he is in monetarism, the Falklands War and the assault on the trade unions
Jonathan Derbyshire
Prospect
Beckett is a lucid, focussed writer . . . There is a wry, shrewd humanity to his historical interests
Richard Davenport-Hines
Observer
Promised You a Miracle is intelligent, entertaining, readable, convincing and timely. It is history well told and properly done
Daniel Finkelstein
The Times
Austin Metros and Chariots of Fire, cricket balls and petrol bombs, Sloane Rangers and Boys from the Blackstuff . . . Andy Beckett's lively and even-handed account of two years in the life of modern Britons is bracingly anti-nostalgic. Focusing sharply on key players and events, he teases out the paradoxes of those sharp-elbowed and irony-free times, and leaves the reader with provoking questions about how we got here from there
Hilary Mantel An anthology of an age . . . A book that offers so much pleasure and insight
Ian Jack
Guardian
Jason Cowley
New Statesman
[Beckett] mixes history, journalism and autobiography. He has a strong sense of place
Richard Vinen
Literary Review
Beckett has a fine eye for detail
Andrew Neather
Evening Standard
Those who lived through the early eighties - who spent all that time wondering what the hell was going to happen next - will enjoy Beckett's work because it validates what at times seemed like a waking dream, or sometimes a waking nightmare. For those too young, the book is valuable as a reminder that there were other times in recent history when it seemed everything was beginning to slide
Jamie Kenny
Big Issue
[A] gripping mixture of contemporary history and vivid reportage
John Campbell
Independent
A breezy and very intelligent anatomy of the years 1980-82 . . . This is not conventional political history - and is all the better for it. Beckett is as interested in the flowering of independent television production companies and the regeneration of London's Docklands as he is in monetarism, the Falklands War and the assault on the trade unions
Jonathan Derbyshire
Prospect
Beckett is a lucid, focussed writer . . . There is a wry, shrewd humanity to his historical interests
Richard Davenport-Hines
Observer
Promised You a Miracle is intelligent, entertaining, readable, convincing and timely. It is history well told and properly done
Daniel Finkelstein
The Times
Austin Metros and Chariots of Fire, cricket balls and petrol bombs, Sloane Rangers and Boys from the Blackstuff . . . Andy Beckett's lively and even-handed account of two years in the life of modern Britons is bracingly anti-nostalgic. Focusing sharply on key players and events, he teases out the paradoxes of those sharp-elbowed and irony-free times, and leaves the reader with provoking questions about how we got here from there
Hilary Mantel An anthology of an age . . . A book that offers so much pleasure and insight
Ian Jack
Guardian