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Book set in the late 70s/80s

34 replies

Caroian · 28/01/2017 14:03

I'm looking for recommendations of books set in the late 1970s or early 1980s. It is a period that I love reading about partly, and simply, because it reminds me of my childhood, but also because I like looking at things from an adult perspective set at a time where I was still lost in childhood innocence, if that makes sense!

I've particularly enjoyed authors such as Isabel Ashdown, Esther Freud and Maggie O'Farrell in recent years... other authors or specific books to try?

OP posts:
BreconBeBuggered · 28/01/2017 15:21

Getting It Right by Elizabeth Jane Howard might interest you.

Caroian · 28/01/2017 15:06

I knew this group would deliver! Adrian Mole definitely covers the right time zone, but I've already read it from start to finish! Afraid I'm not a fan of Jilly Cooper, but will definitely check out the other suggestions.

OP posts:
unflinchingasaphotograph · 28/01/2017 15:01

Starter for Ten (David Nicholls)
Junk by Melvin burgess is set in the 80s
Adrian Mole? :)

YorkiePudster · 28/01/2017 14:59

Beaten to it, but definitely Black Swan Green - so so evocative of early 80s and very believable honest dialogue. Fab book!

MumBod · 28/01/2017 14:53

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell.

venusinscorpio · 28/01/2017 14:50

Jilly Cooper's Riders, Rivals and Polo.

BreconBeBuggered · 28/01/2017 14:49

YY to Jonathan Coe. Also: Early Adrian Mole is in the right time zone.

highlandcoo · 28/01/2017 14:40

The Rotters' Club by Jonathan Coe, followed by The Closed Circle. Captures what it was like as a teenager in the 70s (my era so I'm a bit older than you OP!)

What A Carve Up! by the same author is an excellent political satire.

Also, The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher , set in Sheffield during the Thatcher years, tells the story of ordinary families against the background of the miners' strike.

eddiemairswife · 28/01/2017 14:21

Margaret Drabble.....not the earlier ones, they are set in the 1960s.