For everyone.

Books It's not often that you open up the front cover of a book and find that the listed authors are people who edit and write a website you've contributed to and that there's even someone you've met. While I ponder on how I've been shirking my responsibilities to Off The Telly, time to review the first book based upon their other, better known website, TV Cream, The Ultimate Guide To 70s and 80s Pop Culture.

I know I'm in comfortable territory when Doctor Who is mentioned on page two in a short explanation of what does merit inclusion. That tv show is 'too ubiquitous' which is fair comment. This book is about the stuff you've half forgotten, those items on the edges of your memory. So don't expect Blake's 7 either (dvds available). It's about the truly effemeral, those things which had their moment then disappeared only to surface again in the inevitable pub or work conversations ('Do you remember Galloping Galaxies?' etc)

The genius decision taken by the writers is to widen the cultural interest of the entries away from television. So it's impossible for anyone to look at page 156 and to not suddenly get a craving for Quatro. Open up anywhere at random and it's like a bit of your past jumping up and giving you a welcome hug. It's surprisingly expansive; 2000 AD spin-off Crisis features, along with Angel Delight, Radio Assemblies (Come and Praise) and Making The Most of the Micro - although nothing on Chip's Comic (which I'm slowly discovering no one remembers - nice one Channel Four).

Based on this description, the book could be dismissed by some as the BBC's I Love ... series in book form. But this is a far more entertaining and informative work, ably demonstrating the differences between an authorial voice and Kate Thornton saying that she thought Toyah was cool. The problem I always felt with that series was that I remembered the culture on display but it wasn't often because I wore it, listen to it or ate it. They'd cover The Dandy, but I was always a Whizzer and Chips reader; I might have looked through Smash Hits but spent more time getting my fix of Kylie from Fast Forward.

This is the first time I read a book which feels like a biography of my own life; I don't just remember the Eagle comic revival but also what I was doing when my Dad bought me the first issue and where I threw the free spinner. As we get older, we sometimes forget what our childhoods were like and who we were. This book provides a touchstone, and I really feel like bits of my past are have given back to me. Thanks Graham and everybody.