Promotional Information

The fascinating story of how Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana and the SAS changed the world.

About the Author

Dominic Sandbrook is nearing completion of his great multi-volume history of postwar Britain from the mid 1950s to the late 1980s, which began with Never Had It So Good. He has written and presented a number of highly successful BBC television series, on subjects as diverse as the joys of the Volkswagen and the history of science fiction. He writes reviews and articles principally for the Daily Mail and Sunday Times.

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. -- Piers Brendon * The Sunday Times *
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. -- AN Wilson * The Times *
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. -- Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph *
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. -- Anthony Quinn * The Observer *
Brilliant ... The political manoeuvrings of 1979-82 are traced with a novelistic verve that would have done credit to House of Cards. -- Tom Holland * BBC History Magazine *
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. -- Charles Moore * The Spectator *
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. -- Francis Wheen * Literary Review *
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. -- John Gray * New Statesman *
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. -- John McTernan * Financial Times *
Worth every penny, an enjoyable romp ... It's a great read. -- Paul Donnelley * The Daily Express *
A magisterial history of three momentous years ... the author succeeds triumphantly. -- Patrick Heren * The Article *
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. -- Julian Glover * London Evening Standard *
Praise for THE GREAT BRITISH DREAM FACTORY: Delightfully good ... an exuberant and learned celebration of British culture. -- Nick Cohen * The Observer *
Not only thoroughly entertaining, but crammed with as many serious insights as a shelf-full of academic studies. -- Alwyn W Turner * The Telegraph *
Relentlessly entertaining. -- Daisy Goodwin * The Sunday Times *
I read it in less than two days, my attention never flagging ... It is dramatic, perceptive and often extremely funny. -- John Preston * The Spectator *
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. -- John Preston * Mail on Sunday *