Dominic Sandbrook - State of Emergency: The Way We Were

The Way We Were: Britain, 19701974

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First published by Allen Lane 2010

Published in Penguin Books 2011

Copyright Dominic Sandbrook, 2010

The moral right of the author has been asserted

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book

ISBN: 978-0-24-195691-5

PENGUIN BOOKS

STATE OF EMERGENCY

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 Britains postwar history

Brian Groom, Financial Times, Books of the Year

An evocative portrait of the Heath premiership What most impressed me, however, was Sandbrooks 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 Heaths 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 OHagan, 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 Wyngardes 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 prcis 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 governments 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.

For my great-aunt Muriel Wilcox
and my wife Catherine Morley, with love

All over the nation, families who had listened to the news looked at one another and said Goodness me or Whatever next or I give up or Well, fuck that, before embarking on an evenings viewing of colour television, or a large hot meal, or a trip to the pub, or a choral society evening. All over the country people blamed other people for all the things that were going wrong the trades unions, the present government, the miners, the car workers, the seamen, the Arabs, the Irish, their own husbands, their own wives, their own idle good-for-nothing offspring, comprehensive education. Nobody knew whose fault it really was, but most people managed to complain fairly forcefully about somebody: only a few were stunned into honourable silence.

Margaret Drabble, The Ice Age (1977)

We look back on past ages with condescension, as a mere preparation for us but what if were only an after-glow of them?

J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur (1973)

Michael Cummings in the Daily Express, 9 February 1972

Edward Heath with women MPs (Getty Hulton Archive)

Rubbish in the streets (Getty Hulton)

Boys playing football (Getty Hulton)

Boys smoking (Getty Hulton)

Old lady awaiting eviction (Getty Hulton)

Women at the Highbury Quadrant (Getty Hulton)

Jack Jones (Getty Hulton)

Postal workers (Getty Hulton)

Tony Benn (Getty Hulton)

A pit accident (Getty Hulton)

Announcement of three-day week (Getty Hulton)

Saltley Gate (Press Association)

Power cut breakfast (