Heatwave

‘John L. Williams grippingly captures the three months that shook Britain’s cultural landscape in ‘Heatwave’. His use of highly entertaining and often devastating stories about the febrile atmosphere of 1976’s extraordinarily hot summer, show how simmering community unrest, in a newly multicultural Britain, reached boiling point with the heavy-handed policing of the youth at the Notting Hill Carnival.’ – Pauline Black * Singer, Actress and Author of Black by Design *‘In this engrossing account of one utterly memorable summer, John L Williams goes way beyond nostalgia, as through a series of powerful stories - sometimes touching but often disturbing - he argues persuasively that these were the months that Britain started decisively to become the more open and fluid society we know today.’ – David Kynaston‘Scorching, seething and scintillating, Heatwave conjures a slow-burning collage of a country on the brink. I lived through those cruel months, and Williams recreates them with intense skill.’ – Simon Garfield * Author of Just My Type *‘Thanks to a blend of forensic research and an eye for the most delicious details, John L Williams’ deeply evocative dissection of this mythical moment in our collective memory is an absolute joy. Like the fumes of newspapers gently baking in the midday heat, I just wanted to keep inhaling it.’ – Pete Paphides * Author of Broken Greek *‘If you like your nostalgia sugar-coated and rose-tinted, Heatwave isn’t for you. Instead it offers as exhilarating and empowering a kick in the teeth as the times it describes, that epochal faultline in British cultural life between kaftans, Fred Perry shirts and bondage trousers.’ – Martin Rowson‘Scorching, animated and essential reading. Superb.’ * The Mail On Sunday *‘A teeming chronicle of those scorching months. Superbly researched… a book that is full of dry, ironic observations and has a much wider scope than the title suggests.’ * The Times *

John L Williams is a biographer, novelist, and crime writer from Cardiff. His non-fiction includes his much-acclaimed biography of the Trinidadian polymath CLR James, and his account of the Cardiff Three miscarriage of justice case, Bloody Valentine (‘A bloody good book’ - Benjamin Zephaniah), as well as his enduringly popular portrait of urban America as seen through the prism of crime fiction, Into The Badlands. His biography of his fellow Cardiffian Shirley Bassey was proclaimed the music book of the year by The Times. He is the crime fiction reviewer for The Mail on Sunday. He is the co-founder and literary director of the Laugharne Weekend Festival in west Wales. The one single recorded by his punk band, The Puritan Guitars, is surprisingly collectible.