'A necessity if we want to understand now as well as then.' Hanif Kureishi
The seventies are frequently misunderstood, oversimplified and misrepresented. When the Lights Went Out goes in search of what really happened, what it felt like at the time and where it was all leading - through vivid interviews with leading participants, from Edward Heath to Jack Jones to Arthur Scargill - and brings the decade back to life in all its drama and complexity.
Andy Beckett was born in 1969. He studied modern history at Oxford University and journalism at the University of California in Berkeley. He is a feature writer at the Guardian, and also writes for the London Review of Books and the New York Times magazine. He lives in London.