When The Lights Went Out Britain In The Seventies (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
A great 'prequel' to McSmith's No Such Thing as Society. This is much more narrowly a political history, though. Also, like McSmith, Beckett concentrates on the movers and shakers and we learn little of the average person (unless you count strike celebrities as average people). He tries to give Thatcher a fair hearing, but the between the lines sympathies seem to lie with the builders of the welfare state. An entertaining and informative read. This is a feast of nostalgia for those of us who grew up in the 1970s, and will also provide an illuminating insight for those too young to remember those days of flares and decidedly dodgy pop’ music! Mr. Beckett covers all of the major British political happenings of that decade, starting with Edward Heath’s unmourned Government of 1970, and ending with the 1979 Election, which saw Margaret Thatcher enter 10 Downing Street. By visiting locations (e.g. Saltley, Aberdeen and Willesden – the latter being the scene of the infamous Grunwick dispute of 1977) and visiting now aged politicians and other participants (e.g. Sir Edward Heath and Alfred Sherman weeks before they died, Dennis Healey, and Peter Walker to name but four), he manages to convey a much more vivid picture than if he had just read about the events and people described. Most poignant of all, when visiting some of the locations, such as the Saltley coking plant (scene of mass-picketing and violence), or the field where the Government-led Watchfield Festival took place (as a response to the illegal precursors in Windsor Great Park and the Isle of Wight) is the transient nature of those same events. No visible sign remains – there are no blue plaques commemorating those momentous events. Indeed, those very industries which so dominated industrial strife in the 1970s - coking plants, coalmines, steelworks, car factories, have all but disappeared from existence. The 1970s saw massive industrial unrest, and a political pendulum swinging for and against trades unionism, but the end result was that this was the beginning of the end of Britain’s manufacturing heartland. That is the real tragedy of the 1970s: whilst the Conservative Government of 1979 onwards will always get the blame for the decimation of manufacturing in the U.K., the truth is that the seeds for its demise were clearly sown in the 1970s. Inevitably, perhaps, for a Guardian journalist, there is a left-wing tinge to what is written, but this does not detract from the compelling story of the 1970s that is retold here. Perhaps because of his political leanings, some of the events that remain most vivid in my own memory of the 1970s, such as The Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, or the first Concorde flight, get scant mention, but even a book of over 500 pages will have to be selective in just what it covers from such a dynamic period of British history.I recommend this book to all those who want episodes and characters of the 1970s brought back to life: you will not be disappointed.
What do You think about When The Lights Went Out Britain In The Seventies (2009)?
Illuminating political and social review of Britain in the seventies. Well written and entertaining.
—Emz
Highly addictive reading and accessible for the non-political classes among us!
—Dith
