Before the Oil Ran Out: Britain in the Brutal Years

That rarest of books - the one where, when you've finished reading it, you immediately start to re-read it so that you can enjoy the word-pictures painted by the author again.

The title here may mislead. This collection of articles by the late Scottish journalist Ian Jack has nothing to do with oil - its abundance or its scarcity. It is, rather, a look at the state of the nation of Britain and abroad in the period from 1977 to 1986: what was happening in Britain and further afield, in other words, before the question of oil even arose.

There are sixteen well-written articles here which take as their starting-point an aspect of life in Britain in this period. They include : the end of the age of steam, as reflected in the life of a Glasgow show more engine-driver; a comparison of the working-class districts of Liverpool and Turin, seen through the eyes of their football supporters; a snapshot of a day in the life of the honorary secretary and co-founder of the Society of Advanced Meccano Constructors; and race-relations in Bradford, as witnessed by the former head of Drummond Middle School, Ray Honeyford.

In a nice touch, the author references two earlier 'state of the nation' books by JB Priestley and Louis MacNiece as he tours Yorkshire and the Hebrides. He also recounts what was probably one of the last interviews with Priestley when the latter was 88 years old.

This is a delightful collection of pieces by Ian Jack which show real insight into the lives of those he writes about. You would be hard-pressed to find a better description of life in the Falkland Islands in the 1980's, for example, than the beautifully-crafted chapter here titled "Don't cry for us, Argentina".

Sadly, this book is out of print. However, it's worth tracking down a copy if you can find one. show less

Set of reports on the state of British life from a personal point of view, set in different locations. The first, the longest, is about his father and his milieu as a Glasgow working class man. It has particular fascination for me, so many echoes of my father‘s cultural reference points: Kathleen Ferrier, Paul Court Orchestra et c. other essays are set in leftover British colonies (the Falklands, Rhodesia in its last days under that name, etc). These remind me somewhat of the gringo colony in Lima, narrow and boring. I did not read on. Not quite sure what the title refers to; the book was written quite a while ago, the oil has still not run out.