A classless society - Alwyn W. Turner

"Superb" NICK COHEN, author of What's Left?

"Tremendously entertaining" DOMINIC SANDBROOK, Sunday Times

"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" IRVINE WELSH, Daily Telegraph

"Ravenously inquisitive, darkly comical and coolly undeceived... Turner is a master of the telling detail" CRAIG BROWN, Mail on Sunday

When Margaret Thatcher was ousted from Downing Street in November 1990, after eleven years of bitter social and economic conflict, manyhoped that the decade to come would be more 'caring'; othersdared to believethat the more radical policies of her revolutionmight even be overturned. Across politics and culture there was anapparent yearning for something the Iron Lady had famously dismissed: society.

Yet the forces that had warred over the country during the 1980s were to prevent any simple turning back of the clock. The 'New Britain' to emerge under John Major and Tony Blair would be a contradiction: economically unequalbut culturally classless.

While Westminster agonised over sleaze and the ERM, the country outside became the playground of the New Lad and his sister the Ladette, of Swampy and the YBAs, of Posh and Becks and Jarvis Cocker. A new era was dawning which promised to connect us via the 'information superhighway' and entertain us with 'docusoaps'. It was also a period thatwould seeold moral certainties swept aside, and once venerable institutions descend into farce - followed, in the case ofthe Royal Family, by tragedy.

Opening with a war in the Gulf and ending with the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001,A Classless Societygoes in search of the decadewhen modern Britain came of age. What it finds is a nation anxiously grappling with new technologies, tentatively embracing new lifestyles, and, above all, forging a new sense of what it means to be British.

"Deserves to become a classic" EDWINA CURRIE

"Rich and encyclopaedic" ROGER LEWIS, Daily Mail

"Excellent" D.J. TAYLOR, Independent