Colin MacInnes - City of Spades (1957)

[genrenaut]

My interest in City of Spades was initially inspired by a growing fascination with mod subculture. MacInnes’ Absolute Beginners is considered to be a classic evocation of the mod era, but CoS was the work that I managed to pick up secondhand, and also the first in the London Trilogy, of which AB is the second. And it was certainly absolutely

Comments

[dfordoom]

I've only read Absolute Beginners, which I liked. It was apparently Paul Weller's favourite book (since we're talking about mod subcultures although The Jam were I suppose nouveau mod rather than actual mod). I also have a collection of MacInnes’ essays, England, Half English.

[genrenaut]

I also have a collection of MacInnes’ essays, England, Half English.

Have you read them? He seems like a very interesting character - born in Australia, too! Absolute Beginners is now high on my list - interestingly, it's out of print (at least in Australia & the US) - the only edition available is a collected volume edition of the three London novels.

[dfordoom]

Absolute Beginners was re-issued in paperback when the ill-fated movie came out, so second-hand copies are probably around.

It's years since I read his essays but I seem to remember being quite impressed. I'll have to find the book. I hope I still have it. I should give it a re-read.

We was somewhat ahead of his time in recognising the importance of youth culture and of subcultures, and the influence that immigrant communities in Britain were going to have on both.