All dressed up

Jonathon Green's oral history of the sixties 'underground', Days in the Life, has been until now the most complete account of that celebrated - and much maligned - decade. In ALL DRESSED UP he expands on that book to provide a fascinating and controversial overview of the cultural and political events of the decade. Comprehensive, detailed, often hilarious, this will be the definitive account of the sixties in Britain, challenging the myths fostered by those who were there and enlightening those who were not. Green's sixties begin with the invention of the 'teenager', with the Teds, the Beats and CND; they end with the OZ trial and with two of the decade's most lasting legacies: the women's movement and gay politics. In between his focus is on the whole panoply of that extraordinary decade, from sex, drugs and rock'n'roll to student protest, the anti-Vietnam movement and the radical social legislation - on abortion, obscenity, homosexuality and corporal punishment - pioneered by Roy Jenkins. The underground press, the Arts Lab 'Swinging London', Anti-psychiatry, the hippie trail, the festivals, the drug busts - Green surveys them all with affectionate but critical eye, celebrating the prevailing optimism of the sixties while remaining far from blind from its absurdities.