9 books to take you back to the '90s

From his early experiences of the cult of celebrity as one half of Wham!, to the decades-long scrutiny about his personal life and his enduring legacy, in this new book, historian and superfan Sathnam Sanghera takes a look at George Michael’s extraordinary life. Tonight The Music Seems So Loud is part biography, part social commentary on the good, the bad and the ugly of Britain’s obsession with celebrity in the 1980s and 1990s, and a joyful celebration of one of the world’s greatest songwriters.

For decades, Ruthie Henshall has commanded the stage as a leading lady in some of the West End’s biggest musicals. But how did her journey to stardom begin? In The Showgirl and the Prince, Ruthie tells her story – from chorus girl in the smash-hit Cats to unexpectedly meeting and falling in love with Prince Edward and being on her best behaviour when she met the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Packed with nostalgia and lots of behind-the-scenes gossip from celebrity parties, this hilarious memoir will transport you straight back to the glamorous world of the 1990s West End.

Becky Sharp has a dream, and she will stop at nothing to make it happen, in this novel set in peak '90s London. Desperate to escape the monotony and poverty of her humdrum hometown existence, she sets her sights on Fleet Street and the top role at The Mercury, Britain’s bestselling and most scandalous tabloid newspaper. Using every tool at her disposal to land exclusive after exclusive, Becky soon begins rubbing shoulders with London’s elite, and seeing her byline on the day’s biggest stories. But, as the public’s appetite for gossip grows ever more insatiable, Becky resorts to riskier, more ruthless tactics to land a scoop. Will the life she has built come crashing down around her?

On paper, Hua and Ken should never have been friends. For Hua, an indie zine-writing, vinyl record-playing child of Taiwanese-immigrant parents, Ken, with his fratboy vibe, Abercrombie shirts and love of Dave Matthews Band, represents everything he hates. As the pair complete their first year at Berkeley and navigate what it means to each of them to be Asian American, their bond grows. Sharing late-night dorm room chats, cigarettes and drives along the California coast, soon they are inseparable, until tragedy strikes and Ken is killed in a carjacking incident. Now, two decades on, Hua tells their story of growing up in the 1990s in this deeply moving meditation on male friendship, grief and what it means to belong. 

1993. Iowa City. Paul Polydoris is halfheartedly studying for his film degree, bartending at his college town’s only gay club and keeping a secret. He is a shapeshifter who can change his gender at will. Sometimes Paul, sometimes Polly, he and best friend Jane embark on a series of sexual adventures which take them from Iowa City to San Francisco. A playful and outrageous coming-of-age story, thrumming with lust, love and loss, Andrea Lawlor’s debut novel is an examination of gender and sexuality in the 1990s, set against a nostalgic soundtrack of '70s rock and '80s-'90s alternative and punk music. 

Victor Ward has it all. A model physique, a string of glamorous girlfriends and mistresses, and the paparazzi following him as he waltzes from one glitzy party and club opening to another. But Victor’s seemingly perfect 1990s Manhattan existence is soon shattered when a mysterious man appears and sends him into a shadowy world in search of his ex-girlfriend, who is hiding an earth-shattering secret. Glamorama is a satirical thriller which shines a searing light on the shady veneer of 1990s celebrity culture and asks: how much will people really pay for fame and fortune?

Their sold-out stadium tours were the most coveted ticket in the land last summer, and with ‘Wonderwall’ as the soundtrack of the England football team’s 2026 World Cup campaign, we are still all officially Oasis-obsessed. But what is the real story behind the band’s most beloved songs? In A Sound So Very Loud, music journalists and long-time Oasis fans Ted Kessler and Hamish MacBain dive into the stories behind the songwriting, recording and enduring legacies of Oasis’s biggest hits, including ‘Champagne Supernova’ and ‘Little by Little ’, and fans’ most beloved B-sides such as ‘Half the World Away’ and ‘The Masterplan’. 

Juggling a new career in TV with a love triangle between her terrible (but extremely attractive) ex-boss and nice guy Mark Darcy, alongside the expectations of her suburban parents, Bridget Jones is trying her best. Fortunately she has the support of four indispensable friends: Shazzer, Jude, Tom and a bottle of Chardonnay. A generation-defining novel, Bridget Jones’s Diary offers an in-the-moment look at the fashions, friendships and diet-obsessed culture of the '90s through the life of the beloved 32-year-old Bridget. 

April 1992. Rural Alaska. Chris McCandless, having donated all of his possessions and burned his money, embarks on a journey into the wilderness, determined to live a life of independence and solitude. Four months later, his body is found next to an SOS note, deep in the Alaskan wild. In Into the Wild, a modern classic of travel writing, Jon Krakauer examines McCandless’s decision to turn his back on his privileged upbringing and the life he considered materialistic, and how the risks he took to make his dream a reality ended in tragedy. 

Try your hand at detective work and join Detective Wolf as he wades through the fashions, mixtapes and cultural phenomena of the 1990s in search of clues to solve 70 mini-cases. Will you be able to find the illusion in the Magic Eye book or decode the secret meaning in a boy band’s best-loved song to find the culprits? A great gift for a '90s-obsessed friend or a fun activity which is sure to spark nostalgic conversations about waiting for dial-up internet to connect, collecting Beanie Babies and trying to keep your Tamagotchi alive, you’re sure to unlock great memories from this iconic decade as you work your way through the crimes.