Developments in microelectronics in the early 1970s meant that computers at home seemed about to become commonplace: the kitchen computer would hold all of the family's recipes and keep a record of food in the larder; the study computer would manage the family finances; and the kids' computers would educate and entertain them. Engineers, enthusiasts and budding entrepreneurs set about making home computers a reality, and although the first machines were extremely limited, later models significantly affected life at home, at school and at work. This is the story of the first commonplace home computers - the Sinclairs, Commodores, Amstrads, Acorns, Apple Macs, and the earliest versions of Microsoft Windows - that helped to make the computer an indispensable item in the British home.

Kevin Murrell is a trustee and Director of the National Museum of Computing, and Secretary of the Computer Conservation Society. He is the author of several lectures and articles for the Computer Conservation Society as well as contributing to 'Alan Turing and his Contemporaries' (2012).