The 1960s has been presented as a decade of tremendous colour and allure, but what was it really like to live in this period of change and liberation?

Taking each year in turn, Nicholson highlights the events of the moment, with details of the music, fashion and achievements to be seen, heard and experienced.

She has interviewed women who lived at this time, and relates these remarkable first person narratives. So we read the memories of the mother with a Thalidomide birth, the wife of a trawlerman campaigning to preserve his livelihood, the woman working as a bunny girl. And we learn about Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies.

Virginia Nicholson has written a number of fascinating and very readable books tracing the experiences of women in the 20th century. Her histories are not about accumulating dates and facts, but about learning the stories of people affected by national and international events. 'How Was it For You?' is a powerful account of an extraordinary decade.