How Was It For You?

How Was It For You?

Women, Sex, Love and Power in the 1960s

Summary

'One of the great social historians of our time. No one else makes history this fun' Amanda Foreman

'How Was It For You? subtly but powerfully subverts complacent male assumptions about a legendary decade' David Kynaston

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"A feeling that we could do whatever we liked swept through us in the 60s . . ."

The sixties: a decade of space travel, utopian dreams and - above all - sexual revolution. It liberated a generation. But mostly men.

Meet dollybird Mavis, debutante Kristina, bunny girl Patsy, industrial campaigner Mary and countercultural Caroline. From Carnaby Street to Merseyside, white gloves to Black is Beautiful, their stories illustrate a turbulent power struggle, throwing an unsparing spotlight on morals, drugs, race, bomb culture and sex.

This is a moving, shocking book about tearing up the world and starting again. It's about peace, love and psychedelia, but also misogyny, violation and discrimination, in a decade discovering a new cause: equality.

And women would never be the same again.

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'Sparkling . . . there is a wonderfully diverse range of voices . . . we have a long way to go, but reading this book made me grateful for how far we have come' Daisy Goodwin, The Sunday Times

'An absorbing study of an extraordinary age. Beautifully written and intensively researched' Selina Hastings

Reviews

  • Virginia Nicholson is one of the great social historians of our time, and How Was It For You? is another jewel in her crown. No one else makes makes history this fun
    Amanda Foreman

About the author

Virginia Nicholson

Virginia Nicholson was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, grew up in Yorkshire and Sussex, and studied at Cambridge University. She lived abroad in France and Italy, then worked as a documentary researcher for the BBC. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, her books include the acclaimed social histories Among the Bohemians, Singled Out, Millions Like Us, and Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes. She is married with three grown-up children and lives in Sussex.
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