1 - The 1980s

Summary

In 1983, the journal Granta released its first ‘best of’ issue, featuring the twenty most promising British novelists under the age of 40. The Granta 7 roster proved auspicious and laid the groundwork for the careers of some of the most successful British novelists of the late twentieth century. Based on a campaign run by the Book Marketing Council, the issue ran over 300 pages and included the work of such figures as Salman Rushdie, Pat Barker, Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Graham Swift and Julian Barnes. From Thatcherism to the expansion of British identity, and from gender inequality to newly flexible models of history, the issue’s themes announced the main literary and cultural preoccupations of the decade.