Encouraged by the sizeable pay increase & high divorce rate Chris Clement-Green decided that answering a recruitment ad for the Thames Valley Police was just the thing for a much-needed overhaul of her life It was 1984 a time before political correctness at the height of the miner's strike & in the middle of five years of race riots Perfect timing Expanding her police knowledge her love life & undeterred by sexist remarks she decided to make her mark while kissing goodbye to her previous dull & conventional existence Chris captures the colourful characters & humour in many of the situations she found herself in but the job had its serious side too She was at the centre of a riot in Oxford during which her life was saved by a young black man she had previously stopped & questioned & was attacked by a man with mental-health problems who was a consequence of the decision to move care' into the community' Consistently colliding with the effects of Margaret Thatcher's politics; from miner's picket-lines covering (badly) for striking paramedics during the ambulance dispute to everyday drunken disturbances caused by the haves (Yuppies & Oxford students) & the have-nots (alcoholic homeless & unemployed youth) Chris also tackled sex crimes & abuse This is an often humorous always candid & no-holds-barred reflection of the life of a policewoman in the 1980s Readers are given a personal account of a life in uniform while touching on the Newbury Bypass demos the effects of Scarman the Hungerford Massacre the bombing of Libya the AIDS epidemic & working under the notorious Ali Dizaei