Lime Street Blues by Maureen Lee (Orion, £9.99).

SOME people call it the decade of peace and love. Others call it the decade of discontent. For me, as a teenager in the middle of all the turmoil and excitement, it was fantastic, tremendous, impossible to describe all these years later. It was the 60s.

Yes, I was a baby boomer, a flower-power girl who demonstrated against war. I joined in the peace movement, was there for the "acid trips" and revelled in rock 'n' roll, from Elvis to the Beatles and all the others in between.

For me the 60s were perhaps the best part of my life and I'm one of the world's best bores at talking about it.

From the Twist to women's liberation, the assassination of President Kennedy to the first astronauts, the death of Marilyn Monroe to the sludge of the musical experience that was Woodstock. It was awesome.

And this week I relived it all. All the magic, the danger, the tenderness and drama returned when the heady era was revisited as I read Maureen Lee's Lime Street Blues.

If you love a good rags-to-riches story, Maureen Lee should keep you reading until the sun goes down.

It's the 60s and it's Liverpool. There are the Flowers, the Baileys and the McDowds. They are three different Liverpool families bound together by music. The children are determined to be part of the excitement that surrounds the decade and especially Liverpool.

Sean, Lachlan and Max form The Merseysiders and Jeanne and Rita become part of The Flower Girls both achieving successes beyond their wildest dreams.

Sean McDowd is the greatest, adored by women, yet unable to rid his mind of his first love. But Jeannie Flowers has married Lachlan and no one is prepared for what lies ahead.

A wonderful novel that reminded me of some of the harsh lessons that we learned in a decade when there was much more to life than just rock 'n' roll.

Beverly Abbs