Seasons in the Sun

The Battle for Britain, 1974-1979

Dominic Sandbrook

The final volume in a magnificent quartet on Britain's post-war experience

In the mid-1970s, Britain's fortunes seemed to have reached their lowest point since the Blitz. As inflation rocketed, the pound collapsed and car bombs exploded across London, as Harold Wilson consoled himself with the brandy bottle, the Treasury went cap in hand to the IMF and the Sex Pistols stormed their way to notoriety, it seemed that the game was up for an exhausted nation. But what was life really like behind the headlines?

In his gloriously colourful new book, Dominic Sandbrook recreates this extraordinary period in all its chaos and contradiction. Behind the lurid news stories, the late 1970s were the decisive point in our recent history. Across the country, a profound argument about the future of the nation was being played out, not just in families and schools but in everything from episodes of Doctor Who to singles by the Clash. These years marked the peak of trade union power and the apogee of an old working-class Britain – but they also saw the birth of home computers, the rise of the ready meal and the triumph of a Grantham grocer's daughter who would change our history forever.

Praise for State of Emergency:

'Hugely entertaining, always compelling, often hilarious' Simon Sebag Montefiore, Sunday Telegraph

Born in Shropshire ten days before the October 1974 election, Dominic Sandbrook was educated at Oxford, St Andrews and Cambridge. He is the author of three hugely acclaimed books on post-war Britain: Never Had It So Good, White Heat and State of Emergency, as well as two books on modern American history, Eugene McCarthy and Mad as Hell. A prolific reviewer and columnist, he writes regularly for the Sunday Times, Daily Mail, New Statesman and BBC History. He lives in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire but, sad to say, has never been invited to join the infamous phone-hacking set