Why 1980-82 Made Modern Britain

Promised You A Miracle

'Offers so much pleasure and insight' Guardian 
'Entertaining, convincing and timely' The Times 
 
A vivid, seminal portrait of the early 1980s: a period that changed Britain forever 
 
The early 1980s in Britain were a time of hope, and of dread: of Cold War tension and imminent conflict, when crowds in the street could mean an ecstatic national celebration or an inner-city riot. Here, Andy Beckett recreates an often misunderstood moment of transition, with all its potential and uncertainty: the first precarious years of Margaret Thatcher's government. By the end of 1982, the country was changing, leaving the kinder, more sluggish postwar Britain decisively behind, and becoming the country we have lived in ever since: assertive, commercially driven, outward-looking, often harsher than its neighbours.

An anthology of an age . . . A book that offers so much pleasure and insight

Austin Metros and Chariots of Fire, cricket balls and petrol bombs, Sloane Rangers and Boys from the Blackstuff . . . Andy Beckett's lively and even-handed account of two years in the life of modern Britons is bracingly anti-nostalgic. Focusing  sharply on key players and events, he teases out the paradoxes of those sharp-elbowed and irony-free times, and leaves the reader with provoking questions about how we got here from there

Promised You a Miracle is intelligent, entertaining, readable, convincing and timely. It is history well told and properly done

Beckett is a lucid, focussed writer . . . There is a wry, shrewd humanity to his historical interests

A breezy and very intelligent anatomy of the years 1980-82 . . . This is not conventional political history - and is all the better for it. Beckett is as interested in the flowering of independent television production companies and the regeneration of London's Docklands as he is in monetarism, the Falklands War and the assault on the trade unions

[A] gripping mixture of contemporary history and vivid reportage

Those who lived through the early eighties - who spent all that time wondering what the hell was going to happen next - will enjoy Beckett's work because it validates what at times seemed like a waking dream, or sometimes a waking nightmare. For those too young, the book is valuable as a reminder that there were other times in recent history when it seemed everything was beginning to slide

[Beckett] mixes history, journalism and autobiography. He has a strong sense of place

The appeal of Beckett's book is that he succeeds in showing rather than merely telling us why his chosen period was pivotal in the life of the nation. For those who lived through all the turbulence, as I did, it reawakens memories and helps reconnect you with the person you once were. For those who did not, or who cannot remember, it recounts well how an old nation roused itself from slumber and dared to change the course on which it seemed set

Andy Beckett writes for the Guardian. He has also written for the Economist, The New York Times magazine, the London Review of Books and the Independent on Sunday. His previous books are When the Lights Went Out and Pinochet in Piccadilly.

The early 1980s in Britain were a time of hope, and of dread: of Cold War tension and imminent conflict, when crowds in the street could mean an ecstatic national celebration or an inner-city riot. Here, Andy Beckett recreates an often misunderstood moment of transition: the first precarious years of Margaret Thatcher's government. By the end of 1982, we were leaving the kinder, more sluggish postwar Britain behind, and becoming the country we have lived in ever since: assertive, commercially driven, outward-looking, often harsher than its neighbours.

Andy Beckett

An absorbing history of Labour&rsquo;s radical left

A breath of fresh air: a vivid eye for detail meets narrative pacing that seems effortless... As a character study, and as an evocation of Britain in the last century, it would be worth reading even if you had no particular interest in the subject matter...a masterclass in teasing out complex stories of simultaneous failure and success

At times, [Beckett's] evocation of the 1980s is so vivid that one can almost hear Joy Division&rsquo;s &lsquo;Love Will Tear Us Apart&rsquo; playing in the background as one turns the pages

Vividly detailed and often gripping

A sympathetic and absorbing political history

This is a premier account&hellip; a group biography of how &lsquo;five heretics&rsquo;&hellip; came out of the politics of the 1970s to upend the politics of the 2010s&hellip; Beckett is funny on the own goals and gaffes of a wide spectrum of the British media during years that they did not understand&hellip; There is no shortage of bleak lessons for the Left whilst reading The Searchers, but some causes for hope

Andy Beckett&rsquo;s compelling history of the five politicians who made that movement in Britain&hellip; Beckett tells a good human story about five politicians he rightly identifies as more easily mythologised than understood, and more often than not derided and excluded by their colleagues&hellip; Neither left nor right are honest enough often enough about these people, and more&rsquo;s the pity: understanding what they have achieved requires the sort of untypical, bracing honesty that Beckett applies so artfully here, having spent plenty of time listening and speaking to these politicians &mdash; as too few of his journalistic colleagues have&hellip; The Searchers should be studied closely by anyone with a stake in British politics

An important, largely brilliant book. In focusing on the left, rather than the Jeremy Corbyn phenomenon, Beckett helps us to see more clearly the strengths and weaknesses of what the movement did at a time when it mattered most. By looking at the groundwork done over a much longer period, he also reminds us that these great historical processes are neither created by heroic individuals nor betrayed by evil traitors

Andy Beckett has done a brilliant job in producing an insightful and well-researched book

PRAISE FOR PROMISED YOU A MIRACLE: Lively, provoking, bracingly anti-nostalgic

An anthology of an age . . . A book that offers so much pleasure and insight.

Intelligent, entertaining, readable, convincing and timely. It is history well told and properly done.

Five Rebels, Their Dream of a Different Britain, and Their Many Enemies

In the great revolutionary year of 1968, Tony Benn was a respectable Labour minister in his forties, and he was restless. While new social movements were shaking up Britain and much of the world, Westminster politics seemed stuck. It was time, he decided, for a different approach. 
 
Over the next half century, the radicalized Benn helped forge a new left in Britain. He was joined by four other politicians, who would become comrades, collaborators and rivals: Ken Livingstone, John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn. 
 
For Andy Beckett, the story of these admired and loathed political explorers - both their sudden breakthroughs and long stretches in the wilderness - is the untold story of British politics in modern times. As he reveals, their project to create a radically more equal, liberal and democratic Britain has been much more influential than electoral history might suggest, and can be seen from the shape of our city life to the causes of our culture wars. 
 
For their many detractors, this influence was and remains dangerous: a form of extremism that must be stamped out. But as these five searchers believed, in politics there is no total victory - nor total defeat.

Andy Beckett

Praise for The Searchers

An absorbing history of Labour’s radical left

A breath of fresh air: a vivid eye for detail meets narrative pacing that seems effortless... As a character study, and as an evocation of Britain in the last century, it would be worth reading even if you ha ...

At times, [Beckett's] evocation of the 1980s is so vivid that one can almost hear Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ playing in the background as one turns the pages

An absorbing history of Labour’s radical left

A breath of fresh air: a vivid eye for detail meets narrative pacing that seems effortless... As a character study, and as an evocation of Britain in the last century, it would be worth reading even if you ha ...

At times, [Beckett's] evocation of the 1980s is so vivid that one can almost hear Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ playing in the background as one turns the pages

An absorbing history of Labour’s radical left

A breath of fresh air: a vivid eye for detail meets narrative pacing that seems effortless... As a character study, and as an evocation of Britain in the last century, it would be worth reading even if you ha ...

At times, [Beckett's] evocation of the 1980s is so vivid that one can almost hear Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ playing in the background as one turns the pages

Books by Andy Beckett

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