i still read absolute begginers every so often. he's still hip.

Just back from the pub and having a chinese meal afterwards so won't go into this too deeply now. I do own the MacInnes 'London' trilogy however and find it great for what it actually is and not what it may represent or not. I'm just about to start reading 'The Rider' by Tim Krabbé as it happens which was recommended to me by one of the barmen at my local who's into cycling big time. The novel is seemingly very much in that Camus kinda vein that I like for its absurdist leanings away from the postwar vibe etc.
Another interesting author in this respect is the Belgian Peter Terrin BTW. Sartre I've read but find him somewhat overrated in that '68 kind of way as in leftist BS but interesting to be aware of if you see what I mean. I've always been an avid reader anyway but will leave it at that for now apart from linking this review :

http://www.uppers.org/showArticle.asp?article=630

Last edited by Alex Roest (2009-04-12 02:22:53)

Thinking about C. who else knows his essay "Sharp Schmutter"? It's worth a read. I have it in "England, half English" by him with various other interesting observations of his from that period. In it he revisits AB & talks more about the clothes.

Last edited by Russell_Street (2009-04-12 01:10:55)

I knew he was a bender, of course - or AC/DC anyway.  Fans might have a look at Frank Norman.  I think Alex would love the lingo!

Oh, just edited my earlier post re-Krabbé, sorry 'bout that ( wrong title ) :

http://www.rapha.cc/index.php?page=366

Alex, Frank Norman was an ex-con who became a writer and Soho character.  Books include 'Bang to Rights', 'Stand On Me', 'Banana Boy'; and even the English reader needs an interpreter!  'Sharp Schmutter' is an essay in 'England Half English' in which CM, with his keen journalist's eye, does a bit of an Orwell act: informing the uninformed of c. 1959 on youth fashions.