Geri Halliwell in a Union Jack, Blair posing with Noel Gallagher at No. 10, and a nation united in mourning for Diana. These are the images that have come to define Britain in 1997. From Britpop to the Young British Artists, that year is now remembered by many as a time of lost optimism and vibrancy. A time when it seemed like Britain was becoming a more tolerant, cosmopolitan, freer and fairer society. This book provides an evocative portrait of that era. Cutting through the nostalgia which has come to cloud our memories of the 1990s, Sayeed shows that many of the crises afflicting Britain today had their roots in that crucial year. The rise of New Labour masked the steady creep of British politics towards the right, while the Stephen Lawrence inquest exposed the tenacity of racism in both British society and the state, foreshadowing the widespread hate crime of today. Far from being the crowning height of 'Cool Britannia', Sayeed instead sees 1997 as a missed opportunity, a turning point when there was a chance to genuinely transform British culture and society, but which instead set us on the path to our current malaise.
