Publisher's Synopsis
From the perspective of the early 1940s, Robert Graves and his co-author of The Long Weekend, the journalist and historian Alan Hodge surveyed the darkening interwar years from 1918 to 1939 with wit, insight and a passionate curiosity about the idiosyncrasies that make up the spirit of an age. Nothing escaped their eye for the telling detail: the price of milk and suburban house names; hairstyles and left-wing theatre, dance crazes, the popularity of boxing, the spread of Woolworth's stores... Personalities of the time are deftly captured, the course of politics and international affairs lucidly traced towards the crises of the late 1930s. In a ground-breaking work of social history as colourful and engaging as a novel, Graves and Hodge never lose sight of the larger significance of the changes they record in a world moving towards the outbreak of war.
The Reader Over Your Shoulder, a critical history of and handbook to style in English prose, develops the authors' social analysis in its focus on language. In its emphasis on the importance of clarity and accuracy in communication, it remains an invaluable guide for writers and readers.
