A rich examination of the cultural and political upheaval in Britain in the boiling hot summer of 1976
11th August 2025
Hardcover
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
A rich examination of the cultural and political upheaval in Britain in the boiling hot summer of 1976
Description
'Grippingly captures the three months that shook Britain's cultural landscape' PAULINE BLACK
'Engrossing...powerful...goes way beyond nostalgia' DAVID KYNASTONWith scorching temperatures soaring to 35 degrees, severe water shortages and a sunburned population queuing at the street standpipes, the summer of 1976 will always be remembered as Britain's hottest on record.But the wave that hit the UK that year was also cultural and political, with upheaval on the streets, in parliament, on the cricket pitch and on the radios and TV sets of a nation at a crossroads.Before this blistering summer, Britain seemed stuck in the post-war era, a country where people were all in it together - as long as you were white, male and straight. In July, Tom Robinson writes a song called Glad to be Gay, and by August bank holiday, Black youth are making the police run for their lives in the almighty riot at the Notting Hill Carnival. But with the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson suddenly quitting, the pound sinking and the economy tanking, a restless immigrant population and increasing dissatisfaction in the old world order, the weather seemed to boil up the country to the point where the lid blows off.Weaving a rich tapestry of the news stories of the year, with social commentary and dozens of first-person interviews with those that were there at the time, Williams's reappraisal of the summer of '76 is an evocative, sometimes nostalgic but always an unflinching read. Heatwave takes us back to relive the events of that summer and asks - have we really moved on as much as we would have liked?Critic Reviews
'John L. Williams grippingly captures the three months that shook Britain's cultural landscape in 'Heatwave'. His use of highly entertaining and often devastating stories about the febrile atmosphere of 1976's extraordinarily hot summer, show how simmering community unrest, in a newly multicultural Britain, reached boiling point with the heavy-handed policing of the youth at the Notting Hill Carnival.' -- Pauline Black Singer, Actress and Author of Black by Design
'In this engrossing account of one utterly memorable summer, John L Williams goes way beyond nostalgia, as through a series of powerful stories - sometimes touching but often disturbing - he argues persuasively that these were the months that Britain started decisively to become the more open and fluid society we know today.' -- David Kynaston
About the Author
John L Williams is a biographer, novelist, and crime writer from Cardiff. His non-fiction includes his much-acclaimed biography of the Trinidadian polymath CLR James, and his account of the Cardiff Three miscarriage of justice case, Bloody Valentine ('A bloody good book' - Benjamin Zephaniah), as well as his enduringly popular portrait of urban America as seen through the prism of crime fiction, Into The Badlands. His biography of his fellow Cardiffian Shirley Bassey was proclaimed the music book of the year by The Times. He is the crime fiction reviewer for The Mail on Sunday. He is the co-founder and literary director of the Laugharne Weekend Festival in west Wales. The one single recorded by his punk band, The Puritan Guitars, is surprisingly collectible.
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11th August 2025
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