Brooker’s ability to represent such a wide range of literary and cultural texts within a coherent structure is no small feat. [...] The real strength of the book lies in its ability to provide such an impressively thorough account of a wide range of texts alongside some impassioned and convincing close readings of so many of them. Brooker is doing much more than simply defining, checking or expanding the shifting canons of eighties literature: his literary readings and his sense of the period make both available to us anew.

- Nicky Marsh,

Joseph Brooker's book manages the admirable task of introducing and　even historicising a period whose legacy is just beginning to be understood. Ranging from Derrida to Duran Duran, he provides　an exemplary work of literary and cultural history, while braiding politics and literature together in　revealing close readings of key authors and texts. This is a　brave, lucid and richly informed book, necessary reading for anyone interested in understanding a tumultuous period in the cultural history of these islands.

- Ray Ryan,

Brooker offers an engaged and critical analysis of some of the central literary works and preoccupations of the decade...

Years Work in English Studies, vol 91, no 1, 2012