Britain, 1974-1979
Dominic Sandbrook (2013)
Still, I can try: the late 70s saw global circumstances and short-sighted decisions by successive UK governments combine to produce a toxic mixture that really came to a head in the late 70s. Harold Wilson comes across as an ineffective populist who exemplifies the idea (thank you Douglas Adams!) that anyone capable of getting themselves elected should on no account be allowed to hold power. In contrast, Sandbrook has a lot of time for James Callaghan who, he says, was a good Prime Minister dealt a bad hand by the two previous PMs (Heath and Wilson).
What both men had in common was that they were pragmatists, despite belonging to what was still, at the time, a notionally socialist party. The ideologues on both sides sound like hopeless fantasists, as always; Tony Benn in particular, despite being extensively quoted throughout the book (presumably because he was in the cabinet for so long and left comprehensive diaries), was clearly a head-in-the-clouds romantic who ignored any evidence that disagreed with his precious socialist principles and did quite a lot of damage as a result. Also featured at length is Bernard Donoughue, who has similarly released several books about his time near the centre of government.
The use of relatively few visible sources in the book (although clearly many more were used overall) diminishes the conclusions slightly, I feel, as does the almost complete concentration on politics. Without the leavening of chapters on more social history, Seasons in the Sun becomes heavier than it needs to be.
Still, a masterful piece of work and a wonderful read. I do wish he'd chosen a different title though - every time I saw it on my shelf I started humming that flipping Terry Jacks song!
