Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth

As Margaret Thatcher enters 10 Downing Street, a handful of bands born of punk – Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and The Cure – find a way to distil the dissonance and darkness of the shifting decade into a new form of music. Pushing at the taboos The Sex Pistols had unlocked and dancing with the fetishistic, all will become global stars of goth. By the time Thatcher is cast out of office in 1990, the arrival of goth will have imprinted on the cultural landscape as much as the Iron Lady herself.

Forty years on, author Cathi Unsworth provides the first comprehensive overview of the music, context, and lasting legacy of goth. This is the story of how goth was shaped by the politics of the era – from the miners' strikes and privatisation to the Troubles and AIDS – as well as how its rock 'n' roll outlaw imagery and music cross-pollinated throughout Britain and internationally, speaking to a generation of alienated youths. A fascinating social history, Season of the Witch tells the tale of an enduring counter-culture, one that steadfastly refuses to give up the ghost.

A Times Book of the Year

A Mojo Book of the Year

A Louder Than War Book of the Year

A Waterstones Book of the Year

A Resident Book of the Year

'A beautifully written, meticulously researched account. 4/5.' - CLASSIC POP