When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies by Andy Beckett

As another decade passes, the real joy of Andy Beckett's account of the 1970s is the way he avoids crudely mocking 10 years generally reviled as those of three-day weeks, political decline and loud trousers. Instead, Beckett also dips into the 1960s, 1980s and beyond to explain the cause and effect of the policies of the major politicians of the time: Heath, Wilson, Callaghan… and of course, Thatcher. She foreshadows a large chunk of a book almost thriller-like in tone, but never once does Beckett fall for the too easily accepted view: that her accession to prime minister was inevitable. Required reading for anyone who grew up in what were, as this enthralling and enjoyable book explains, defining times.