UK Post-Punk is a selection of five essays that represents Simon Reynolds's astute and thought-provoking commentary on the musical fallout of the punk explosion. Diversity is the watchword, with groups as stylistically varied as PiL, Joy Division and the Specials tackling the new musical terrain that had opened up. Often highly political - both overtly and through challenging the prevailing conservatism of the times - these groups were the soundtrack to the last days of socialism, national recession and the arrival of an aggressive new form of politics: Thatcherism.

Simon Reynolds is the author of seven books about music and pop culture, including Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-Punk 1978-1984, Energy Flash: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture and Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock. Born in London, resident in New York for most of the nineties and noughties, he now lives in Los Angeles.