GB84, David Peace's fifth novel, is a gripping, tautly plotted dramatisation of the miners' strike in which real events (Orgreave, the Brigh...
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Jul 28, 2011
Derek
rated it: 
Wow, this is tough going at times, but on balance it's worth it. The stacatto prose really can be offputting: it's so blunt and seemingly affectless. But the cumulative effect is really very powerful.
What is especially rewarding with this novel is the juxtaposition of the "behind the scenes" stuff - the NUM, the cops, Special Branch, the lackeys to Margaret Thatcher, etc - with the really quite heart-breaking strikers diaries of Martin and Peter which are interleaved throughout the mai More...
What is especially rewarding with this novel is the juxtaposition of the "behind the scenes" stuff - the NUM, the cops, Special Branch, the lackeys to Margaret Thatcher, etc - with the really quite heart-breaking strikers diaries of Martin and Peter which are interleaved throughout the mai More...
Jul 19, 2007
Mike
rated it:
It's shocking how easily we forget that in 1984 Britain almost became a militarised police state by stealth. All those nostalgia shows have reinvented the 80s as a fun time of crazy haircuts and synth pop but there was a cancer spreading in Britain that metasised in the industrial heartlands.
Peace reminds us of this essential recent history in his typical staccato style. Everything else is mere fluff compared to this guy.
Peace reminds us of this essential recent history in his typical staccato style. Everything else is mere fluff compared to this guy.
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Jan 27, 2011
Adam
rated it:
David Peace makes a powerful, angry, ominous, and forbidding monument of a novel of the ’84 UK Miner’s strike (which was an equivalent labor defeat to the ’85 Pan Am strike, but more violent and filled with drama.). If you aren’t in the right frame of mind, this frantic and wonderful read might seem like apocalyptic mumblings from a scary bum or a newscast from hell rather than a proper novel. Peace takes from John Dos Passo, Iain Sinclair, and James Ellroy and intertwines multiples narratives a
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Jun 16, 2010
Neil
rated it: 
Like Peace's masterpiece "The Red Riding Quartet", this novel is dark, violent and multi-layered. The prose is rich in descriptive text, at times almost poetic in style, which allows the reader to really immerse themselves within the tale. Peace's gift is to take an event that we all know, and force the reader to become enthralled. You find yourself hoping that the ending will be different, and when it isn't you find yourself disappointed.
The main thread of the story follow More...
The main thread of the story follow More...
Sep 26, 2011
Alastair
rated it:
The thing about reading 'faction' is that you already know how it's going to end. That I still felt caught up in the book, willing some chracters on, wishing failure on others, even though ultimately you know it's the other way around, is testimony to the narrative power of this book. I was a young teenager when all this happened and living in the South East so the events weren't directly of concern to me at the time, but there are enough ghosts of the past to evoke the time whilst reading even
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Jul 26, 2011
The story of the Miners' Strike told from multiple perspectives - an ordinary miner, a senior union official, and an unnamed senior Tory advisor - with a number of other characters, including an appropriately murky storyline involving the security services. Not everyone finds Peace easy to read, and there are some typical experimental twists here, but GB84 is filled with passion and should be compulsory reading for anyone who didn't have the pleasure of living through the Thatcher era. Lest we
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Oct 26, 2009
Nick
rated it: 
Not for the faint-hearted, or the short-sighted. Gritty dialogue, rough characters, the occasional stream of consciousness, vicious backstabbing and corruption at the highest levels combine to produce a larger-than-lfe account of UK's miners' strike in 1984 (geddit?!). With everything at stake (workers rights, education, the deepest values held by society, state brutality and the struggle between the establishment and the left wing - see what I mean by everything) the miners' strike was one of t
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Jul 06, 2008
Nickie
rated it:
Great Britain 1984, and parts of the country are effectively under martial law, as Thatcher's government tries to break the unions in what's been described as the third English civil war.
Peace covers the strike from all (or most) angles - the miners, the police, the government, the union, the secret services. Nobody but the miners come out of this looking good, and it's clear that it's the miners, as the troops, that take the beatings. Most of all, Peace highlights how the government More...
Peace covers the strike from all (or most) angles - the miners, the police, the government, the union, the secret services. Nobody but the miners come out of this looking good, and it's clear that it's the miners, as the troops, that take the beatings. Most of all, Peace highlights how the government More...
Sep 13, 2010
my dad worked at the coal board during this time in H.R. and was threatened with the sack for his activities in the Coal Not Dole campaign. As leader of camden council we were bagging up tins of food to send off to the miners camping out at Camden Town Hall on their way to demos and meetings in London. I rember going to Hobart House as a kid - all smoke and wooden panels just like in the book. I have told him to read it but don't think her wants to relive it!
Mar 15, 2009
Rebecca
rated it:
A really gritty book, that gives a real sense of the time and emotions of the miners strike. The main charcters range from warm and friendly to dark and menacing, and the movement bewteen the differnt naratives keeps the tale fresh and exciting from start to finish. The themes of loyalty and mistrust sit well with the topic, and add an addiotnal layer to the historical novel.
Feb 05, 2012
Jonathan
rated it:
Noir as black as the Yorkshire coals that fuel it! David Peace dips his brush in the facts to paint a vivid portrait of a nation divided by class, greed and politics. I experienced Thatcher's Britain as the teenage son and grandson of miners, It's a time that is easy to remember, but not to understand. Peace helps...
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Mar 28, 2010
Deanne
rated it:
I was 11 and living in Nottingham at the time of the miner's strike, so my memories of that time are of watching the pitched battles between the police and the miners on telly at night.
Sep 12, 2010
Mat
rated it:
This is just a brilliant re-imagining of a dark period of UK history. Amazing narrative and dialogue throughout
Nov 19, 2009
Stephen
rated it:
This was the first time I've read anything by David Peace and I was astounded by the excellence of this book. The pace of story, the intricate and imaginative use of historical events, the engrossing characters and the fantastic plot make this one of the best works of modern fiction I've ever read.
Sep 20, 2011
Euzie
rated it: 
A book in three stories
Story 1 - the tale of the miners - if i could give this 10 out of 5 i would, amazing, powerful and relevant today
Story 2 - A crime thriller focusing on a botched special branch job and its cover up, decent if occasionally uninspiring though it sort of bids the book together well though it does get a bit wrapped up in itself towards the end
Story 3 - The tale of terry, Chief Executive Officer of the NUM - Bloody awful, and the denouement actual More...
Story 1 - the tale of the miners - if i could give this 10 out of 5 i would, amazing, powerful and relevant today
Story 2 - A crime thriller focusing on a botched special branch job and its cover up, decent if occasionally uninspiring though it sort of bids the book together well though it does get a bit wrapped up in itself towards the end
Story 3 - The tale of terry, Chief Executive Officer of the NUM - Bloody awful, and the denouement actual More...
Feb 03, 2012
Tim Evans
rated it:
I hope someone makes this into a film. Typical Peace. I'd have liked to have seen a bit more of a rounded view rather than the miner's side and the almost cartoonish villain of 'The Jew' but that's excusable. A fantastic story of the '84 mining strike.
Apr 25, 2011
Jenny
rated it:
Harrowing. Mostly no idea what was going on, except it wasn't good, and it wasn't really about the viability of coal mines. Which accords fairly well with memory.
Feb 19, 2012
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