Forgetfulness
5 January 1990, Friday, Ampthill
Funny how you just forget what happened some days.
That’s all young-Toby writes on 5 January.
Here are some reminders of what’s going on in 1990 —
Background: The Black Friday stock market crash, or Friday the 13th mini-crash, occurred on Friday, 13 October 1989
The Prime Minister is Margaret Thatcher, and has been since 4 May 1979, and will be until 28 November 1990; on 12 October 1989, Margaret Thatcher had listened to chants of ‘Ten more years!’ at the Conservative Party Conference. She lasted one year and two weeks more in office before they treacherously binned her.
The Leader of the Opposition, and the Leader of the Labour Party, is Neil Kinnock, and he’ll stay that way until 18 July 1992
The President of the United States is George Bush Snr, in his first and only term.
Glasgow is, as of 1 January, European Capital of Culture
On 1 April 1989, the riotously unpopular Community Charge (Poll Tax) was introduced in Scotland, and a year later would also be introduced in England — some of the people who end up moving to Prague this year refer to themselves as ‘Poll Tax Exiles’
On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela is released from prison after 27 years
On 2 August 1990, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, ordered by Saddam Hussein, will begin
In December 1990, according to AI, Tim Berners-Lee successfully parses the World Wide Web, its HTTP protocol, and HTML language
Singles released this year, which Toby likes, include ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ by Sinéad O’Connor, ‘Talking With Myself’ by Electribe 101, ‘Groove is in the Heart’ Deee-Lite, ‘The Obvious Child’ by Paul Simon and ‘Show Me Heaven’ by Maria McKee. Albums released include Heaven and Las Vegas by Cocteau Twins, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic by The Sundays, Jordan: The Comeback by Prefab Spout and People’s Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm by A Tribe Called Quest
A.S.Byatt’s Possession wins the Booker Prize. Also around (and at some later point read by Toby) are The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi, Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell, Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley, Like Life by Lorrie Moore, Vertigo by W.G. Sebald and City of Quartz by Mike Davis
Difficult year. My father was taken hostage and most of my childhood possessions stolen or destroyed by Saddam Hussein's poor, conscripted flip-flop army. Back home I was avoiding IRA bin bombs and charging police horses. Dead doesn't mean forgetting or forgiven.