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Decades of Childhood
A 1980s Childhood: From He-Man to Shell Suits
Do you remember trying to solve the Rubik’s cube whilst dressed in your He-Man picture pyjamas? Did you try to make ‘cool’ sound effects with your mouth like Jones from Police Academy? Or maybe you swooned over Scott and Charlene’s (aka Jason and Kylie’s) wedding of the year? If that sounds like you, there’s no mistaking you were a child of the eighties. Rev up your DeLorean, switch on the Flux Capacitor and take a cruise back through the decade that made you the person you are today. This amusing and entertaining collection of reminiscences will jog the memories of all who grew up in the same decade where greed was good, mullets were cool and white dog poo littered the streets.
240 pages, Paperback
First published August 17, 2012
42 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
About the author
Michael A. Johnson
3 booksLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Michael A. Johnson is the creator (and curator) of the UK's most popular nostalgia website www.DoYouRemember.co.uk, which allows people from all over the world to share their favourite memories of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He is also the owner and director of a successful digital media agency. He lives in Dorset with his wife and two children.
Michael A. Johnson is the creator (and curator) of the UK's most popular nostalgia website www.DoYouRemember.co.uk, which allows people from all over the world to share their favourite memories of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He is also the owner and director of a successful digital media agency. He lives in Dorset with his wife and two children.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
March 29, 2022
A fantastic journey down memory lane .Spoke about things that I had forgotten all about a complete pleasure will read again.
December 31, 2018
Review to follow
May 15, 2025
A fun trip down memory lane, though I was a bit young to remember a lot of it so I’m looking forward to the 1990’s one too!
November 18, 2012
Entertaining enough if you were a British child / teen in the 1980s like me.
March 17, 2015
This small book packs in a lot; fashion, music, toys, TV, famous people and events along with some personal recollections. It’s a great overview of the decade.
January 25, 2017
As a big fan of the 80s I picked up this book that I got for Christmas hoping for a good retro fix.
The book itself is a fairly decent enough read, however the writing style of the author sometimes comes across as though he's unearthed some new facts that only he knows.
The book has a few errors in it too where the author just hasn't done his homework, for example, he claims Yazz' "The only way is up" was released in 1983! Try 1988, sunshine.
He also claims he had a Spectrum 128K which had a built in tape drive. No it didn't.
The Spectrum +2 had a built in tape deck, the +3 had a built in disk drive but the standard 128K had neither, it was very much like the Spectrum Plus.
If you're going to write a book about a decade and furnish it with facts, especially in a "know it all" writing style then you need to get that info correct.
I found the last chapter very tedious also, the school trips which listed everything from people being sick and having nose bleeds to being left behind etc. As much as the author claims it happened, I think it only happened in his fantasy memory.
The book itself is a fairly decent enough read, however the writing style of the author sometimes comes across as though he's unearthed some new facts that only he knows.
The book has a few errors in it too where the author just hasn't done his homework, for example, he claims Yazz' "The only way is up" was released in 1983! Try 1988, sunshine.
He also claims he had a Spectrum 128K which had a built in tape drive. No it didn't.
The Spectrum +2 had a built in tape deck, the +3 had a built in disk drive but the standard 128K had neither, it was very much like the Spectrum Plus.
If you're going to write a book about a decade and furnish it with facts, especially in a "know it all" writing style then you need to get that info correct.
I found the last chapter very tedious also, the school trips which listed everything from people being sick and having nose bleeds to being left behind etc. As much as the author claims it happened, I think it only happened in his fantasy memory.
August 6, 2019
A simple book, seemingly based on a popular blog, and one with an irresistible topic for someone like me who was a true child of the 1980s. Johnson's remit is to briefly go through the decade from a child's perspective, themed around simple topics: music, fashion, film, and cars to name but four. The latter parts of the book become more interesting with some well-judged memories of school days and the like which will bring back fond (and perhaps not-so-fond) memories for the readers. It's simple stuff, but highly readable with it, and perfect for a nostalgia kick.
March 29, 2021
Brought back memories
A great light hearted look back at the 80's. As a Mum of a child born in 1981 I went through all the various fads for kids because my child played with them , and badgered me to buy them! A great read for eighties kids and their 80's parents, a chance to reminisce together and relive those innocent days in the 80's where modern technology was moving at a fast pace but the 70's still played a part in the pattern of life . I enjoyed this book it brought back lots of good memories of a time that feels like yesterday but was in fact 40 years ago!
A great light hearted look back at the 80's. As a Mum of a child born in 1981 I went through all the various fads for kids because my child played with them , and badgered me to buy them! A great read for eighties kids and their 80's parents, a chance to reminisce together and relive those innocent days in the 80's where modern technology was moving at a fast pace but the 70's still played a part in the pattern of life . I enjoyed this book it brought back lots of good memories of a time that feels like yesterday but was in fact 40 years ago!
April 25, 2019
DO YER REMEMBER GOBOTS? DO YER REMEMBER WHEN ZAMMO DIED FROM TOO MUCH DANNY KENDALL JUICE? DO YER REMEMBER WHEN NICOLAE AND ELENA CHAUSESCU WERE SHOT TO DEATH BY FIRING SQUAD ON DECEMBER 25TH 1989?
A series of bad standup routines about the 80s in collected form. The irony is when the author talks personally about his own life, its a much more interesting book. But then he also slagged off Cannon and Ball so stuff 'im.
A series of bad standup routines about the 80s in collected form. The irony is when the author talks personally about his own life, its a much more interesting book. But then he also slagged off Cannon and Ball so stuff 'im.
April 15, 2025
The nostalgia brings a tear to your eye!
What a fantastic book. The experiences lovingly detailed on these pages bring back so many memories. It could have been written about me or so many of us of a similar age.
The section on riding a grifter made me laugh out loud in public. The christmas morning brought a tear of familiarity.
Thank you Michael for sharing your memories and helping me to remember mine.
What a fantastic book. The experiences lovingly detailed on these pages bring back so many memories. It could have been written about me or so many of us of a similar age.
The section on riding a grifter made me laugh out loud in public. The christmas morning brought a tear of familiarity.
Thank you Michael for sharing your memories and helping me to remember mine.
March 3, 2017
I'll stay in the past thanks.
Being two years older than the author, I identify so much with this well written book. A book that will make any person that spent their childhood in the eighties smile and mutter "oh yeah, I remember that, those, and oh, I forgot about that". You'll be pining for a time machine in a matter of minutes within a few pages of this book.
Being two years older than the author, I identify so much with this well written book. A book that will make any person that spent their childhood in the eighties smile and mutter "oh yeah, I remember that, those, and oh, I forgot about that". You'll be pining for a time machine in a matter of minutes within a few pages of this book.
September 8, 2020
Better than the 70's book in the same series by The History Press by quite some distance, which says more about how bad that book was rather than how great this one is. It's plain, easy to read but pretty obvious in its scope but I guess that's the point - it's an almanac of nostalgia rather than a critique of the period or a memoir. Fast to read and I made it to the end.
June 8, 2017
42 WORD REVIEW:
It seems unlikely this book will have any great appeal to those who didn’t grow up in the 1980s. Even those who did may question the virtue of slipping back through someone else’s (rather Anglocentric) memories. Then again, the 80s were beguiling…
It seems unlikely this book will have any great appeal to those who didn’t grow up in the 1980s. Even those who did may question the virtue of slipping back through someone else’s (rather Anglocentric) memories. Then again, the 80s were beguiling…
November 23, 2020
Fantastic Little Book. Took me right back to things I had as a child. This is a MUST read for anyone born in the late 1970's
Everything in this book from The TV shows to the food, fashion. The big hair do's
This book is little Gem.
Everything in this book from The TV shows to the food, fashion. The big hair do's
This book is little Gem.
April 28, 2025
Started badly with an incorrect stat on Yazz and the plastic population but improved throughout. Clearly a north south divide that left a slight sour taste. Claiming near poverty but having a mongoose BMX and a grifter! I could only dream of such luxury and we weren’t poor! Good memories though!
August 20, 2019
Started off well but felt too factual rather than a story. Skim read some chapters and some parts were pretty good. Others not so.
April 4, 2021
A wonderful read and reminded of how things were so much easier in the 80s, get those cassette tapes back and get recording the top 40 of Radio 1, a great read
March 9, 2022
Several inaccuracies in this vanity project, gave up part way through. Also needs a good editor, horrible reading experience.
May 14, 2025
A nice amusing trip down memory lane.
January 29, 2014
What a truly dreadful book. I wasn't expecting perfection. I wasn't even expecting it to be that well-written, rather, along the lines of Steve Berry's nostalgia book about sweets and snacks, which was crap, but the treasure trove of memory-inducing colour illustrations made that more than worthwhile.
What illustrations this had were black and white, and bore little relation to the words on the page. And the writing? It read not like the author had actually lived in the 80s, nor did it seem intended for anyone who did live in the 80s, but more like a cocky schoolboy had been told to research the decade for a school assignment, so he basically filched it all from Wikipedia. My knowledge of English grammar is shocking, so I don't know what you call that tense where you use "would" all the time (i.e., "In the 80s, all schoolchildren WOULD do this and do that, and my friends and I WOULD do this and that", etc...) but it is BLOODY ANNOYING when great swathes of a book are written this way.
What illustrations this had were black and white, and bore little relation to the words on the page. And the writing? It read not like the author had actually lived in the 80s, nor did it seem intended for anyone who did live in the 80s, but more like a cocky schoolboy had been told to research the decade for a school assignment, so he basically filched it all from Wikipedia. My knowledge of English grammar is shocking, so I don't know what you call that tense where you use "would" all the time (i.e., "In the 80s, all schoolchildren WOULD do this and do that, and my friends and I WOULD do this and that", etc...) but it is BLOODY ANNOYING when great swathes of a book are written this way.
August 14, 2016
The 80s for me was reading lots of books not written in the 80s and watching 80s cartoons. I genuinely don't think there has been a better period for children's television - Dogtanian, Count Duckula, Little House on the Prairie, Danger Mouse, SuperTed, Rainbow Brite, Gummi Bears, Thunder Cats etc etc.
And I seem to recall being a huge Kylie fan.
This book was a nice trip down memory lane. I could have done without the description of shell suits and bum bags though - I had forgotten I had ever owned either! (Fortunately the author did not describe ski pants so the fact I owned many pairs (and adored them) is known to just a few!)
And I seem to recall being a huge Kylie fan.
This book was a nice trip down memory lane. I could have done without the description of shell suits and bum bags though - I had forgotten I had ever owned either! (Fortunately the author did not describe ski pants so the fact I owned many pairs (and adored them) is known to just a few!)
February 4, 2014
Poor. Just flicked through it really. Very much a book of lists and not very funny.
February 11, 2014
As someone born in early part of the 70s, I consider myself a true child of the 80s and loved reminiscing along with this book
October 2, 2016
As a Canadian I skipped over half the book because I don't know much about British 80's pop culture so I had no clue what or who he was talking about
January 11, 2014
trip down memory lane
February 11, 2015
Gave up 10 pages in. Life's too short.
April 13, 2015
An informative and enjoyable reminiscence of the eighties.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews