Into the Valley

Encouraged by the sizeable pay increase and high divorce rate, Chris 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 miners' strike, in the middle of five years of race riots. Perfect timing. Expanding her police knowledge, and her love life, undeterred by sexist remarks and chauvinists, she decided to make her mark - kissing goodbye to her previous dull and conventional existence. Chris captures the colourful characters and humour 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 and questioned. Consistently coming up against the effects of Margaret Thatcher's politics - controlling miners' picket-lines, covering (poorly) for striking paramedics during the ambulance dispute, responding to drunken disturbances caused by the haves (Yuppies and Oxford students) and the have-nots (alcoholic homeless and unemployed youth) - Chris also tackled sex crimes and abuse. A humorous, candid and no-holds-barred reflection of the life of a policewoman in the 80s, this book offers 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, and working under the notorious Ali Dizaei.