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Stylish, riveting and appalling, GB84 is a shocking fictional documentation of the violence, sleaze and fraudulence that characterised Thatcher's Britain. Great Britain. 1984. The miners' strike. It is the closest Britain has come to civil war in fifty years, setting the government against the people. In his trademark visceral prose, Peace describes the insidious workings of the boardroom negotiations and the increasingly anarchic coalfield battles; the struggle for influence in government and the dwindling powers of the NUM; and the corruption, intrigue and dirty tricks which run through the whole like a fault in a seam of coal. David Peace has written a novel extraordinary in its reach, and unflinching in its capacity to recreate the brutality and passion that changed the course of British history in the late twentieth century. 'A genuine British original.' Guardian 'Peace is a writer of such immense talent and power . . . If Northern noir is the crime fashion of the moment, Peace is its most brilliant designer.' The Times
About the author
David Peace - named in 2003 as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists - was born and brought up in Yorkshire. He is the author of twelve novels including the Red Riding Quartet, adapted for television by Channel Four in 2009, GB84, which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, The Damned Utd, The Tokyo Trilogy, Red or Dead, which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize in 2013 and most recently Tokyo Redux. He lives in Tokyo.
Summary
Great Britain. 1984. The miners' strike. It is the closest Britain has come to civil war in fifty years, setting the government against the people. This book presents a fictional documentation of the violence, sleaze and fraudulence that characterised Thatcher's Britain.
Foreword
Originally published on the twentieth anniversary of the miners' strike, GB84 is David Peace's seminal novel about the dispute.
Report
On one level GB84 works as a historically precise, week-by-week account of the strike. But it is also a conspiracy thriller laced with apocalyptic poetry. Its power lies in it mixture of documentary realism and enigmatic fantasy, its exploration of the intimate betrayals that constitute an epic social tragedy. Independant
