PENGUIN BOOKS
‘A hugely entertaining, compelling portrait’
Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year
‘Makes an effective case for the decade of discontent as the cradle of contemporary Britain. Five states of emergency may have been called in three years, yet the 1970s produced much which we now take for granted, from feminism to chicken tikka’
Lisa Hilton, Independent on Sunday, Books of the Year
‘Vividly portrayed … a sweeping, subtle portrait of the most tumultuous period in Britain’s postwar history’
Brian Groom, Financial Times, Books of the Year
‘An evocative portrait of the Heath premiership … What most impressed me, however, was Sandbrook’s ability to move seamlessly from intricate political and economic analysis to sweeping social analysis … Above all, in its portrait of Edward Heath as a cussed, blinkered, and stiffly upright tragic hero, it provides a study of flawed dignity as rich and ambiguous as anything to be found in a novel’
Tom Holland, The Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year
‘In State of Emergency, this pre-eminent historian of recent Britain delivers a hugely entertaining, always compelling, often hilarious portrait of the Seventies. It is based on the broadest research, from the white papers of Heath’s government and the Bloody Sunday inquiry to NME interviews with David Bowie and the pornographic magazines of Paul Raymond … I have to say it is rare to read a book that covers the miners’ strike and the Irish Troubles, and yet often find oneself laughing out loud’
Simon Sebag Montefiore, Sunday Telegraph
‘Superb … Sandbrook writes as though he were there, yet he was only born in 1974. This suggests a phenomenal attention to detail and an intrinsic understanding of the period, its culture and its people’
Simon Heffer, Literary Review
‘Reading Sandbrook is always an enjoyable experience, partly because of the unforgettable vignettes that are to be found on practically every page … In State of Emergency, the latest volume in what promises to be an ongoing series, Sandbrook moves on to the early Seventies. Ranging across popular culture, literature and social mores, he re-creates that lost world with a flair all the more impressive when you realise he was born in 1974 … No one who reads State of Emergency will think of the decade in quite the same way again’ John Gray, New Statesman
‘Magisterial … for me a Proustian experience’
Andrew O’Hagan, London Review of Books
‘As he proved in his earlier works, Sandbrook is a masterly magpie. Nothing escapes his gaze, from the silk lavender dressing-gowns sported by Peter Wyngarde’s Jason King, through the sexual politics of Doctor Who, to John “never one to miss a bandwagon” Lennon sending a cheque to support the striking Clyde shipworkers. Throw in deft précis of the rise in football hooliganism and birth of the mugger, the introduction of the Pill and boom in pornography, and the depressing side-effects of brutalist council blocks, and you have as eclectic a historical grab-bag as you could wish for’ Christopher Bray, Independent on Sunday
‘Meticulously fair … The paradoxes of the Seventies are brilliantly dissected and analysed’ Simon Griffith, Mail on Sunday
‘Detailed and authoritative … sophisticated and nuanced … Sandbrook is both knowledgeable and entertaining … this is a fine addition to what is becoming a monumental series on the history of modern Britain’ Adrian Bingham, BBC History Magazine
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dominic Sandbrook was born in Shropshire in 1974, an indirect result of the Heath government’s three-day week giving couples more leisure time. He is now a prolific reviewer and commentator, writing regularly for the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and Sunday Times. He is the author of two hugely acclaimed books on Britain in the Fifties and Sixties, Never Had It So Good and White Heat.