Customer Reviews

Reasons to Be Cheerful

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On seeing that there was no review for this book I've decided to write one, my first ever Amazon review. I'm thoroughly enjoying this book so far, I'm about two thirds the way through it, and you may enjoy it too. It will make you chuckle with recognition at times and almost inspire you to start your own revolution at others...but mostly the former I suspect. If you are a Brit that grew up in the late 70s and 80s then it will be particularly meaningful. I was a little young to appreciate all that was going on while I was in my very early years, the lure of new Star Wars figures distracted me from the political turmoil of the times. This book has given me a perspective of events like the miner's strike and Maggie's time a the top. I'm off to read some more of it right now.

I enjoyed Steel's book on the French Revolution, so I thought I would give his other book a try. As an American with little understanding of British politics, I thought I might learn a bit as I went.

That said, the book is not published in the U.S. and that should have been a tip off. It seemed that there were three references per page that were lost on me. Some chapters were dense and meaningless enough to me that I just skimmed them. This book is not "learn more about recent British politics", rather "commentary assuming you already know British politics."

But the rest were excellent. Steel is quite funny in this book. And despite my complaints, I did learn quite a bit about the landscape of British politics. But the heart of the book is Steel's personal path: participating in demonstrations, recounting how he espoused Socialist views to his friends, becoming famous-ish, and essentially growing up. And all of that is excellent.

I was laughing constantly reading this book, I'm from the same crappy town and had the same feeling of not fitting in.
Marks exploits are at times humbling and at times hilarious. The details of the years he covers are amazing, I've no idea how he remembers so much! Though it could be depressing going over this old ground, (the million year reign of fatcha and the arrival of Blair), it's actually thoroughly entertaining and full of facts about what was going on.
I honestly bloody loved it.

Thanks for a brilliant read Mr Steel.