Guardian Faber Publishing

A devastating critique of our current government, post-Brexit, from the bestselling authors of "Cameron's Coup". It illuminates the need for a functioning public sector as our health, police, welfare, old age care services and flood protection defences begin to waver, due to lack of funding.

An authoritative survey of 2010-20: what went wrong, what went right, and what's next for Britain.

The ten years from 2010 have been devastating. A decade of austerity and paralysis nurtured contempt for leaders, institutions and fellow citizens and fertilised the ground for a rebellious Brexit. It has been a decade characterised by national tragedies from Grenfell to Windrush, and food banks to the property crisis.

But, as Adam Smith said, 'there's a great deal of ruin in a nation'. No truthful portrait of an era can be monochrome. Bright spots included the rise of renewable energy, lower crime rates, legalisation of same-sex marriage and the creative industries continuing to punch well above their weight in spite of cuts.

In The Lost Decade, Polly Toynbee and David Walker offer the definitive survey of this most tumultuous of periods in British history and look to what lies ahead for us. This is the anatomy of a dark decade, bringing hope for better to come.

*Includes updated post-election material.*

The NHS devastated without so much as a by-your-leave; Gen Y hung out to dry; legal aid cut for the vulnerable; social housing on the brink of collapse . . .

Cameron has been busy.

Margaret Thatcher sold off the nationalised industries, her political heirs are intent on leaving an even more radical legacy - selling off the state itself.

Written with their trademark precision and passion, Toynbee and Walker reveal how in four short years a party that failed to win a Commons majority has been devastatingly effective. Blending polls and statistics with moving human stories from Taunton to Teesside, Sydenham to Sheffield, Cameron's Coup shows the alarming reversal in decades of social progress. As Toynbee and Walker argue, it has been nothing short of a revolution. And they ask the pressing question: are these changes irrevocable?

This is essential reading for anyone who cares about their country.