Who Dares Wins

Reviews

Like its predecessors, Who Dares Wins is a rich mixture of political narrative and social reportage. It is scholarly, accessible, well written, witty and incisive. It fizzes with character and anecdote ... Superb. Magisterial ... If anyone wants to know what has been happening to Britain since the 1950s, it is difficult to imagine a more informative, or better-humoured guide ... a Thucydidean coolness, balance and wisdom that is superb. Superb ... Immaculately well-researched, breathtakingly broad and beautifully written. One defies anyone, even a specialist, not to learn something from it ... Sandbrook leaves the reader impatient for the next volume. Painstaking, enjoyable, even-handed ... you may feel a nice balance of piquancy and poignancy in having those years brought to life by the historian's magic wand. Brilliant ... The political manoeuvrings of 1979-82 are traced with a novelistic verve that would have done credit to House of Cards. Dominic Sandbrook's great chronicle of Britain locates the big political narrative always in a wider social context than just by-election swings and Westminster roundabouts ... It all comes flooding back. This is vividly panoramic history, ranging from high affairs of state to the tiniest textural details of everyday life ... His sources are joyously eclectic ... We wait impatiently for the next course of this richly satisfying historical feast. A magnificent history ... Who Dares Wins captures the period with clairvoyant vividness. Compulsively readable, the book will be indispensable to anyone who wants to understand these pivotal years. Masterful, mammoth ... rich and rewarding ... One of the book's great strengths is that although we know how the story will end we are still kept in suspense - not because of doubts over the outcome, but because Sandbrook situates the reader firmly back in those crucial years ... The result is a full and rich account of the period. Worth every penny, an enjoyable romp ... It's a great read. A magisterial history of three momentous years ... the author succeeds triumphantly. You don't have to have grown up with the Mini Metro, Lymeswold cheese and the Sinclair Spectrum v BBC Micro to adore this brilliant history of the Eighties. It slides compellingly from socialism to Soft Cell's Tainted Love and made me want to be 10 again, bewildered by the Falklands War on TV. Praise for THE GREAT BRITISH DREAM FACTORY: Delightfully good ... an exuberant and learned celebration of British culture. Not only thoroughly entertaining, but crammed with as many serious insights as a shelf-full of academic studies. Relentlessly entertaining. I read it in less than two days, my attention never flagging ... It is dramatic, perceptive and often extremely funny. Terrific fun ... Sandbrook isn't like other historians ... He heads off down strange, neglected byways, teasing out unexpected connections, with the results often proving far more illuminating - and enjoyable - than conventional narratives ... I defy you not to be swept up in a narrative that's as colourful as it is dramatic. Praise for THE GREAT BRITISH DREAM FACTORY: Delightfully good ... an exuberant and learned celebration of British culture Not only thoroughly entertaining, but crammed with as many serious insights as a shelf-ful of academic studies. Relentlessly entertaining I read it in less than two days, my attention never flagging ... It is dramatic, perceptive and often extremely funny Terrific fun ... Sandbrook isn't like other historians ... He heads off down strange, neglected byways, teasing out unexpected connections, with the results often proving far more illuminating - and enjoyable - than conventional narratives ... I defy you not to be swept up in a narrative that's as colourful as it is dramatic. Expand reviews