A Classless Society

Reviews / Votes

***** "The field of instant history now attracts some of this country's liveliest and most intelligent writers ... Alwyn W. Turner ranks high among them: ravenously inquisitive, darkly comical and coolly undeceived... Turner is a master of the telling detail... His research is phenomenal. There seems to be no haystack through which he has not rummaged in search of every needle... Turner has a talent for zooming in and out from the general to the particular and back again. This means he is able at one and the same time to see both the wood and the trees... A Year In Provence, Squidgygate, the Chippendales, Cool Britannia, Black Wednesday, Swampy, Robert Maxwell, 'Something of the Night'; Alwyn W. Turner conjures them all up, as vivid and eerie as a dream." "Like his previous histories of the Seventies and Eighties, A Classless Society is an extraordinarily comprehensive work. Turner writes brilliantly, creating a compelling narrative of the decade, weaving contrasting elements together with a natural storyteller's aplomb... engaging and unique." "He is amusing, perceptive and reminds the reader of the TV programmes and musical artists they have loved and then forgotten." " Superb. I was a journalist throughout the 1990s, but did not notice a tenth of what Turner has seen or write about it half as well."

" John Major may have struggled to create a country at ease with itself, but Alwyn Turner' s seductive blend of political analysis, social reportage and cultural immersion puts him wonderfully at ease with his readers."

"It was refreshing to dip into A Classless Society, the third volume of Alwyn Turner' s history of Britain since the 1970s... I enjoyed it a great deal."

" Alwyn Turner comprehensively explodes the notion that knowing so much about the 20th century makes a coherent historical account impossible. A Classless Society is an illuminating, admirably inclusive and perhaps essential guide to understanding what just happened. An invaluable English document."

"Tremendously entertaining... As a historian Turner is probably his own worst enemy - which I mean as a compliment. His book has plenty of acute insights, as well as a sensible thesis that the 1990s saw the establishment of a new post-Thatcher settlement, based on economic and social liberalism. But the stories are just so good, and often so funny, that you keep forgetting about the argument... How often, after all, do you read a book that has equally interesting things to say about Britain's exit from the ERM, the advent of Loaded magazine and the rise of Alan Partridge?"

"Rich and encyclopaedic... A particular pleasure of this wonderful, hilarious book is Turner' s contempt for politicians, who are ' perverts, liars and conmen' , on the whole."

"He is amusing, perceptive and reminds the reader of the TV programmes and musical artists they have loved and then forgotten."

"Isn' t it too soon for a history of the Nineties - their recentness carrying an inherent danger of not seeing the wood for the trees? Turner' s solution is to anchor his narrative firmly in the era' s politics, splitting the decade into the Major and Blair years - resulting in a very credible first draft... Turner has a good ear too for political gossip - Major' s flirtatiousness (to Margaret Beckett: 'Would you like a nibble of my mace?') and Blair' s impatience (on Roy Hattersley: a 'fat, pompous bugger')."

"One of the great strengths of this ... very readable and enjoyable book is Turner' s use of the telling vignette. An early one is the story of how Major, a few weeks after becoming PM, crossed the floor of the Commons to kneel beside the old leftie Eric Heffer, who was obviously dying but had left his sickbed to vote against Britain' s involvement in the first war against Saddam Hussein. This sweet and most un-Thatcherite gesture provoked applause in the House, a bipartisan and possibly unprecedented breach of protocol... Reading A Classless Society is like a safari through vaguely familiar country, illuminated by a shrewd, fair-minded guide with an elephantine memory."

"A tremendous book ... takes you there, and reminds you of the taste and feel of those times ... proves beyond doubt that the Nineties were a very important decade. One day, there will be lots of books about this period. I suspect that the first may well be the best."

***** " The field of instant history now attracts some of this country' s liveliest and most intelligent writers ... Alwyn W. Turner ranks high among them: ravenously inquisitive, darkly comical and coolly undeceived... Turner is a master of the telling detail... His research is phenomenal. There seems to be no haystack through which he has not rummaged in search of every needle... T