Clubland

by Kevin Sampson

A hard-hitting story of sex and greed from the bestselling author of Outlaws.

Ged Brennan’s had enough. He sees young kids making a name for themselves in Liverpool and worse still, they’re making big money. Ged wants some of that for himself and he thinks a man of his standing is entitled to it. But for a man of violence, he’s incredibly moralistic. Ged has a righteous streak as wide as the Mersey and there’s no way he’s getting involved in clubs, drugs and topless bars. So when he receives an offer to take over the clubland empire of an
executed gangster, he passes the parcel to his sex-addicted cousin Moby. Mistake.

Clubland follows Outlaws’ heroic villains into new territory, new intrigue, and very real danger.

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Kevin Sampson is the author of seven novels - Awaydays, Powder, Leisure, Outlaws, Clubland, Freshers and most recently, Stars are Stars - and a work of non-fiction, Extra Time. He lives and works in Liverpool.

Reviews

[Doreen Jones · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book if not for me. My copy that was given to me. I put the book down after reading the first page, something I have never done before. The author could justify the over use of the ‘f’ word as depicting his character via his language style. However the language used caused me to reject the book.

[J.T. McAndrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

the follow up to Outlaws this book is of much the same calibre, gangsters clubs sex drugs the usual but a very good read if you liked the first book your gona love this.

[Eugene Soukharnikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. The story could be more dynamic but the language is delicious: beautiful, eloquent, that delectable flow of low key English prose, saturated with savory understatement and richly nuanced humo(u)r. Everything is clear, no need to shout about nasty things, not an obscenity is uttered, no murderous bushy cu nts lurk in the bushes pour l'amour de Dieu. I even scanned a few pages and emailed them to a British friend and he stopped responding. I guess I lost a friend! Not bad for a book. Come on! The stuff is of such in-your-face dumb variety that I even chuckled on a few occasions. It's hard to say if the author is serious or it is a grotesque comedy. Something an overrated genius like Tarantino might turn into a movie which has no chance of succeeding unless it is over-hyped and over-promoted. If the author had a better plot, this would could have been a masterpiece. To paraphrase a Finnish saying "if only pigs had claws they would live in trees." So a solid, well-earned honest "drei".

[Godzilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is thingio like

yer know, what say

I had no problem with the dialect, but then I quite enjoy books like that.

I was disappointed, I'd read Kevin Sampsons' "Awaydays" and "Outlaws" a precursor to this book, and enjoyed them. They had great characters, swift pacing and drew you in quickly.

Even though this features some of the same characters as "Outlaws", they're pale shadows of their former selves. If I hadn't read "Outlaws" this book would have left me completely cold. The plot is shallow and twists more than Chubby Checker, which isn't a good thing.

I was left not really caring what happened to the characters at the end, never a good sign!

On the plus side it was only 250 pages long!

[Phil Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was more interesting to me for the style of the writing. The whole book is written in the first person from the point of view of the various characters in it.

Stylistically it was noteworthy, as a story it was just OK.

I can however see a low budget British film adaptation working for this book - maybe that is just the dust jacket reference to the author as a British Tarantino. I am so easily influenced!

[Anthony Lynch · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was not to bad of a read. I think i enjoyed the fact it was all based in liverpool & the corruption of councils & deals.