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Original poster

Book set in 70s/80s/90s

45 replies

Thismighthelp · 11/10/2024 12:55

Picking a book club book. Would like to read a fiction book set in the 70s/80s/90s - think Catlin Moran, Jenny Eclair, etc. Any recommendations?

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TotalEclipseOfMyFart · 28/10/2024 18:02

Just picked up a copy of Lisa Jewell's The Truth About Melody Browne. It is saturated with 70s and early 80s nostalgia.

Flustration · 21/10/2024 08:39

A little niche, but Douglas Coupland's Microserfs is a time capsule of the early 90s tech boom.

HighburyLass · 21/10/2024 08:30

The Rotters Club by Jonathon Coe

Original poster
Thismighthelp · 21/10/2024 08:02

This is brilliant- thank you everyone!

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DisplayPurposesOnly · 21/10/2024 07:59

Jane Smiley - Duplicate Keys. New York, 1980. Woman discovers the bodies of two of her friends, murdered. Has to re-evaluate her friendships.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 21/10/2024 07:47

Bridget Jones is 90s too.

itslikecakesbutitsnotcakes · 21/10/2024 03:42

The Jonathan Coe books What a Carve Up! And the Rotters Club.

Both really excellent and fabulously written. First sone is set the 80's and the second in the 1970s.

Also, for fun, try the Adrian Mole books. Hilarious and takes you through the 80s and 90s as he grows up.

Alex Drake · 21/10/2024 02:22

Best 80's tastic book ever!!

Jackie Collins - Chances

Not very pc today but a cracking read!

BonzoDogDooDahBand · 21/10/2024 02:10

Jijithecat · 20/10/2024 20:15

A few books that I've read and enjoyed from those periods:

• Anita and Me by Meera Syal
• Cuckoo in the Nest by Fran Hill
• My Name is Leon by Kit De Waal

I had forgotten Anita and Me! Lovely book.

OdileO · 20/10/2024 20:18

I’d really recommend All My Mothers by Joanna Glen. I think it starts in the 70s and finishes in the 90s. A lot of it set in Spain which is nice in these gloomier months!

Jijithecat · 20/10/2024 20:15

A few books that I've read and enjoyed from those periods:

• Anita and Me by Meera Syal
• Cuckoo in the Nest by Fran Hill
• My Name is Leon by Kit De Waal

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 20/10/2024 19:50

Once In A House On Fire - Andrea Ashworth

Brilliantly written, albeit uncomfortable at times, memoir of a 1970s childhood in working class Manchester.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 20/10/2024 19:46

The first 2 or 3 Adrian Mole diaries are fictitious social documentary of the 1980s.

BonzoDogDooDahBand · 20/10/2024 18:34

Just remembered another book set in the 70s, which evokes the time period very well.A beautiful book, it's called Perfect by Rachel Joyce (the one who wrote the Harold Fry books).

Taytocrisps · 20/10/2024 12:34

@BonzoDogDooDahBand I was just about to suggest Monica Dickens. She cropped into my mind lately, for some reason. I'd like to have a re-read.

BonzoDogDooDahBand · 20/10/2024 12:28

Forgot to mention Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stewart. written recently but set in 70s/80s Glasgow.

A book I believe perfectly captures the 70s/80s of Manchester is not actually a novel but a beautifully written autobiography is Once In A House on Fire by Andrea Ashworth. I should probably warn that it does deal with domestic abuse, but it does give a very evocative sense of the era.

BonzoDogDooDahBand · 20/10/2024 12:23

Margaret Drabble is the queen of 70s literature.

Lynne Reid Banks

Deborah Moggach (her older books like Stolen, Porky, You Must Be Sisters etc)

Margaret Foster

Anita Brookner

William Trevor

Muriel Sparks

John Mortimer

Joanna Trollope

Monica Dickens

(I second the poster who mentioned Joanna Nadim's Queen of Bloody Everything. It's brilliant)

Blackcountryexile · 14/10/2024 22:26

The Trouble With Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon !970s

PhilsMajicHat · 14/10/2024 21:57

Riverswims · 11/10/2024 13:09

I've just finished "list of suspicious things" set in 80-81. insightful and I love reading/seeing footage from times I was too young to remember

Came on to suggest this, really enjoyed it

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 12/10/2024 18:22

It's sobering that I grew up believing that universities were bastions of free speech and thought. Reading The History Man was one of my first indications that they aren't. Just as relevant today as it was then.

WhisperTree · 12/10/2024 16:30

That's a good one. Read it last summer. Also recommended.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 12/10/2024 14:17

The History Man, Malcolm Bradbury

tobee · 12/10/2024 14:11

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

NigelHarmansNewWife · 11/10/2024 19:47

Have you read The Lovely Bones? Very evocative of a 70s childhood.

CanyonMoon · 11/10/2024 19:45

A PP mentioned Maggie O’Farrell and Instructions for a Heatwave is a very good one set in the 70s. I would ad another vote for Mary Wesley too

White Teeth goes from the 70s to the 90s I think, and is a great read. Bit different from the authors you mention but very well-known