In this book the author argues that the violence, joyriding and urban rioting of 1991 reveal a new face of late 20th-century Britain. Through her conversations with joyriders, offenders, police officers, community activists and "ordinary" citizens, the author probes the new forms of offending, defending and spending and brings a feminist analysis to the facts of daily existence. The author has also written "Wigan Pier Revisited", which won the Cheltenham Festival Prize for Literature and "Iron Ladies" which won the Fawcett Prize.