Youngsters would excitedly dial in to access the strident world of the World Wide Web, waiting in suspense as the line hissed and rattled into life – and then they were ‘in’! As was Boris Becker in his advertising for AOL. Let the fun begin – surfing, chatting, illegal downloads of music and more. Parental displeasure in spades! Their phone lines were perpetually in use! And what was this internet thing all about, anyway? Just a ‘hype’, as Bill Gates thought in the very beginning?

Helmut Kohl didn’t want to hear from journalists asking him about his plans for the creation of the information superhighway. Might this be like road building? Something for each federal state? Shot through with Lobe’s deliciously sharp humour, this book transports us back to the Digital Stone Age and paints a colourful picture of the generation for whom the internet became a huge adventure playground.