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‘Intimate, immersive, often moving, How Was it For You? subtly but powerfully subverts complacent male assumptions about a legendary decade.’

David Kynaston

The cliché of the 1960s: the Pill, Beatlemania, the mini-skirt and Swinging London. A world of Free Love which appeared to promise peace, love and togetherness.

But what was the flip side of a youth supposedly given over to sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll? How Was It For You? reconstructs the real 1960s, putting the women who lived it centre stage.

How Was it for You?  follows its predecessors (Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes and Millions Like Us) in tracking the 20th Century through the experiences of women from 1960-1970.

‘With fine intelligence and irresistible brio, Virginia Nicholson brings alive the moral rigidity, panty-wetting Beatlemania, and A-bomb nihilism of 60s England. What was left for women to do? Shake it out and shake it up, and they did. How Was It For You? is a kaleidoscopic tribute to the generation that put the “F” into feminism. I ripped through it with gusto and delight.’

Tina Brown

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  • “ Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes
    "As social history, it bears comparison with David Kynaston’s Family Britain. Nicholson has the same knack of seamlessly piecing gripping individual stories into a panorama of everyday life." ”
    — Bee Wilson, The Sunday Times
  • “ Millions Like Us
    “It's hard to single out stories from this rich, entwined narrative, which moves in and out of the lives of an absorbing cast of characters... Vividly entertaining, uplifting and humbling, Millions Like Us deserves to be a bestseller...” ”
    — Bel Mooney, The Daily Mail
  • “ Singled Out
    “It is high time to dig [this generation] up again, salute their memory and listen to their sad and uncomplaining voices unmuffled at last in Nicholson’s brave, humane and honest book.” ”
    — Hilary Spurling, the Observer
  • “ Among the Bohemians
    “An extraordinarily rich, provocative study. [Nicholson’s] substantial cast is stage-managed superbly… This book is not just good fun. It raises profound questions about our lives.” ”
    — Christina Hardyment, The Independent