Spice Girl Geri Halliwell dressed in a Union Jack, Prime Minister Tony Blair posing with Noel Gallagher of Oasis at No. 10, and a nation united in mourning for Princess Diana. These are the images that have come to define Britain in the pivotal year of 1997. In hindsight, the year is now remembered by many as a time of optimism and vibrancy, quickly lost. It symbolized a time when it seemed like Britain was becoming a more tolerant, cosmopolitan, freer, and more equitable country. So what happened?

Richard Power Sayeed has set out to find where the hope of the late ‘90s was lost. In '1997: The Future that Never Happened', he offers an evocative portrait of an era too quickly put into the past. Sayeed cuts through the nostalgia to show how many of the crises afflicting Britain today, actually had their roots in that crucial year. For example, the rise of New Labour masked the steady creep of British politics towards the right, while the Stephen Lawrence inquest exposed the tenacity of racism in both British society and the state, foreshadowing the widespread hate crimes of today. Far from being the crowning height of Britain’s cool, Sayeed instead sees 1997 as a missed opportunity, a turning point when there was a chance to genuinely transform British culture and society that was sadly lost.

Providing an in-depth account of crucial events, while looking beyond politics to consider the role of music, art and popular culture, Sayeed powerfully traces Britain’s current malaise back to its origins.