Kevin

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Kevin is Currently Reading

Kevin is currently reading

Who Dares Wins: Britain, 1979-1982

by Dominic Sandbrook

bookshelves: politics, culture, currently-reading

Reading for the 3rd time

read in June 2024

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Kevin said: " I didn’t know what to expect at all but I loved it.

It’s a very comprehensive history of Britain from 1979 to 1982. It’s not entirely about Mrs Thatcher — but it mostly is. She touched every aspect of the book and there are long chapters about such to I didn’t know what to expect at all but I loved it.

It’s a very comprehensive history of Britain from 1979 to 1982. It’s not entirely about Mrs Thatcher — but it mostly is. She touched every aspect of the book and there are long chapters about such topics as her preferences in clothing and how she relates to the men in her life.

It's written as a kind of history that dips in and out of her life but it's all about the fashions and foods and music and TV shows of my teens as well as the threat of Armageddon and fighting the Argentinians in the Falklands. It was weird reading about the music of my youth written by someone who was barely a toddler at the time. It was like reading about the customs of Papua New Guinea by a Swede who had never been to Papua New Guinea.

As many have noted already, the author claims the book is not partisan — but it absolutely is. Sandbrook comes across as a complete Maggie Fan.

Before I read this, I was of the Tramp The Ground Down persuasion but I didn’t really understand why. I understand better now. The radical economic stuff at the start of her reign appalled me then and it appals me still. The casual way that Thatcher and Howe and Lawson talked of the years of pain to come and the destruction of towns and industries and communities was just despicable. Her absolute certainty that she was doing the right thing when it brought so much tragedy reminded me what a monster she could be.

And yet Sandbrook shines a light on a side of her that I had never seen before. Her basic human morality that people should work hard, take care of each other and be proud of their country impressed me no end. Yet the combination of this with her own sense of infallibility resulted in disaster for those of us who weren’t already successful. People who play Dungeons and Dragons or watch Game of Thrones will be familiar with the Lawful Good paladin-types who would kill a village to save it. Mrs Thatcher wiped out a whole generation of mine workers, engineers and manufacturers and the towns they lived in. Many never recovered.

Her contribution to the victory in the Falklands was deeply moving and I have nothing but admiration for her role in this when everyone around her was so cowardly and nothing but pride for my country when we showed a hint of the greatness from years past.

Great book!

I will certainly read more books in the series. ...more "

progress:

(30%)
— May 29, 2024 02:24PM

Jun 24, 2024 10:02AM · see review

Kevin is currently reading

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)

by Martha Wells (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Apr 16, 2026 03:22AM

Kevin’s Notes & Highlights

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

13 highlights

‘It’s not quite like that.’ ‘Oh, it is, man, if you haven’t got to go back, you’re free, living the life. Good on ya, guys.’

See Kevin’s 21 books with notes and highlights…

Kevin’s Quotes

“Death is the mother of beauty. Only the perishable can be beautiful, which is why we are unmoved by artificial flowers.”
― Wallace Stevens

tags: beauty

306 likes

“Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness. All can know good as good only because there is evil.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

54 likes

“He hated to think of his own life stretching ahead of him that way, a long succession of days and nights that were fine - not good, not bad, not great, not lousy, not exciting, not anything.”
― Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

tags: boring, life, mediocre

73 likes

“They don't actually want you to do your own thing, not unless it's their thing too.”
― Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War

tags: truth

47 likes