Primarily my thanks go to those who were kind enough to speak with me about the period and to help on this project, including Dan Atkinson, Bill Cash, Edwina Currie, Elizabeth Coldwell, Peter Darvill-Evans, Iain Duncan Smith, John Flaxman, Hugo Frey, Tristan Garel-Jones, Bryan Gould, Luke Haines, Harvey Hinsley, Martin Johnes, Millree Hughes, Rebecca Levene, Rhodri Morgan, Felicity Page, Giles Radice, John Redwood and Norman Tebbit, as well as those who asked not to be mentioned by name.
I’m enormously grateful to Aurum for their continuing support and encouragement. Amongst those who have been involved are Jessica Axe, Graham Coster, David Graham, Sam Shone, Melissa Smith and Lucy Warburton.
Chris Shamwana designed a beautiful jacket, Steve Gove was a terrific text editor and, above all, Sam Harrison has been the best editor I’ve worked with: he’s not entirely responsible for everything here, but I blame him for quite a lot of it.
As ever, my thanks go to Thamasin Marsh for putting up with this over a protracted period of time. The next one will be shorter, I promise.
This book is dedicated to Brian Freeborn and Richard Pain, who separately provided me with gainful employment during the 1990s and who remain friends.
The quotes that form part of the chapter titles come from the following songs: Manic Street Preachers, ‘From Despair to Where’; Jesus Jones, ‘The Devil You Know’; Saint Etienne, ‘You’re in a Bad Way’; Denim, ‘Here Is My Song for Europe’; Oasis, ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’; Suede, ‘New Generation’; Supergrass, ‘Caught by the Fuzz’; Radiohead, ‘Creep’; Chumbawamba, ‘Tubthumping’; D:Ream, ‘Things Can Only Get Better’; Blur, ‘Sunday, Sunday’; Gene, ‘As Good as It Gets’; Placebo, ‘Nancy Boy’; Catatonia, ‘Storm the Palace’; Supernaturals, ‘Smile’; Teenage Fanclub, ‘I Don’t Want Control of You’; Echobelly, ‘I Can’t Imagine the World Without Me’; Spice Girls, ‘Wannabe’; Pulp, ‘Disco 2000’; Auteurs, ‘The Rubettes’.
The section titles are, as ever, taken from songs by David Bowie.