What on earth is wrong with Ian Rankin's memory?

[tree_and_leaf]

It was fascinating to research the 1980s. I was at university then and thought myself political, yet I had forgotten so much: protests against US missiles on British soil; Greenham Common; animal rights; acid rain; global cooling; Reagan's star wars technology; the threat of nuclear attack; unrest in Ireland;* unrest in Scotland …

Or was he living under a rock? I remember all of that, with minimal prompting (certainly not research), and I was at primary school.

Although I'll admit I don't remember any unrest in Scotland comparable to the Troubles...


* How the hell can you forget the Troubles?

Comments

[liadnan]

The only way I can make sense of that one is some kind of distinction between remembering in an objective way that the Troubles were at their peak then, and remembering what it was actually *like*, how it felt and what it meant on a subjective level. Not that I've forgotten the latter myself.

[tree_and_leaf]

Possibly, but it still seems like an odd thing to say, even allowing for hyperbole. It certainly doesn't make me look forward to his book as a superb evocation of the past...