What do you think?
Rate this book
Wimbledon #2
They Came from SW19
Book by Williams, Nigel
250 pages, Paperback
First published October 8, 1993
6 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 9, 2018
I enjoyed and understood the humour most in this book when I read it outloud. I would recommend anyone considering reading it to do so, maybe with a friend, taking turns to read chapters. while initially the style and humour went over my head, once I got used to it (and started reading it outloud!) I enjoyed it more and actually laughed out loud a couple of times, which I don't normally when reading. it's one I'd like to reread all outloud at some point to maybe understand more.
March 27, 2018
I know humour is a very personal thing, but was that meant to be funny?
The subject of religion is a fairly easy target, but this book didn't succeed in raising even a grin at any point. It seemed very predictable and pedestrian.
I did wonder whether to persevere until the end or give up. I wish I had done the latter and not wasted so many hours of my life.
The subject of religion is a fairly easy target, but this book didn't succeed in raising even a grin at any point. It seemed very predictable and pedestrian.
I did wonder whether to persevere until the end or give up. I wish I had done the latter and not wasted so many hours of my life.
January 24, 2021
Another in Nigel Williams’ Wimbledon series, They Came From SW19 concerns a 14 year old boy instead of a middle-aged aspiring wife murderer, but the general cloud of London misanthropy lingers.
When his father dies suddenly, Simon is plunged deeper into his mother’s religious group who seem determined to contact the departed dad; meanwhile Simon’s friend and fellow alien enthusiast has seemingly been abducted. Which is more important, the supernatural or the paranormal?
As ever with Williams this reads like a more caustic P.G. Wodehouse, and it’s thrillingly funny. The story is less plot-driven than The Wimbledon Poisoner and in the end it’s surprisingly bittersweet.
When his father dies suddenly, Simon is plunged deeper into his mother’s religious group who seem determined to contact the departed dad; meanwhile Simon’s friend and fellow alien enthusiast has seemingly been abducted. Which is more important, the supernatural or the paranormal?
As ever with Williams this reads like a more caustic P.G. Wodehouse, and it’s thrillingly funny. The story is less plot-driven than The Wimbledon Poisoner and in the end it’s surprisingly bittersweet.
July 6, 2023
Well goodness me, that was weird! Bit overlong? YA??
April 7, 2016
Wimbledon is internationally renowned for hosting a tennis tournament. For those Londoners who do not inhabit the area, however, Wimbledon can be something of a joke. It has its Wombles, strange synthetic cuddly-toy creatures that inhabit the Common, a patch of apparently tended land that runs wild in places. The natural area has a dual carriageway trunk road along one side.
Socially the place is every bit as much of a mix as it seems to be geographically. I hesitate to use the word contradiction, since it does conform to many British models. Wimbledon is completely split, for instance, between the extremely well off in the “Village” (it’s in a city, by the way) and those at the broad spectrum’s other end who occupy other parts, right down to Colliers Wood (which is not a wood). Wimbledon might think of itself as leafy green, but the experience of most of its inhabitants remains determinedly inner city. Wimbledon is thus the butt of many a joke.
In short, it’s just the kind of place where you would expect to find a warbling religious sect populated by people who commune with the dead, alongside those who have devoted their lives to spotting extra-terrestrials. And this is exactly the scenario presented by Nigel Williams in his novel They Came From SW19. South West 19, incidentally, is London’s postcode for Wimbledon.
Simon Britton is fourteen and has just lost his dad. Lost is possibly misleading, because it may merely imply that the family head had been mislaid. But in the sense we encounter in They Came From SW19 it means decidedly dead, and not a trip to Barbados or the Lake District. Simon is willing to live with the label, as long as his dad agrees. As the book progresses, however, this assumed agreement becomes less clear.
You see, the other thing that folk in Wimbledon do is regularly talk to the dead. There is a couple called Mr and Mrs Quigley. Not only are they pretty big in the First Church of Christ the Spiritualist, they are also – jointly and individually – pretty big in other parts as well, especially Mr Quigley, who seems to be very well endowed indeed. Simon, after repeated expressions of indifference, decides to join the church and adopt its beliefs. He suffers consternation, however, when speaking in tongues reveals that the area has been invaded by aliens. The event is particularly poignant because it seems to have links with the disappearance of Simon’s friend, who regularly communed with local extra-terrestrials.
But all is not what it seems. Perhaps the friend has not really disappeared. Perhaps he has been taken into an alien ship for the purposes of observation and scientific investigation. Maybe that was what happened to Simon’s father as well, the heart attack being a mere diversion to keep the whole affair secret.
They Came From SW19 is a rather insane farce. It is also very funny and, given the nature of Wimbledon, also highly probable. The place is probably packed with aliens – some of them even tennis players! – with space ships and flying saucers forming the bulk of local traffic jams. The place is even more likely packed with zany charismatics who speak in tongues, commune with the dead and make strange claims about details of their diet.
But the novel is not just a funny story. Nigel Williams is always more subtle than this. At the core of the book is an observation about cultural currency. People adopt and trade foibles to make statements about their identity and their claims to influence. But more often than not, these complicated facades are really hides within which ultimate frailty can be concealed. These people, after all, have to live with living in Wimbledon.
Socially the place is every bit as much of a mix as it seems to be geographically. I hesitate to use the word contradiction, since it does conform to many British models. Wimbledon is completely split, for instance, between the extremely well off in the “Village” (it’s in a city, by the way) and those at the broad spectrum’s other end who occupy other parts, right down to Colliers Wood (which is not a wood). Wimbledon might think of itself as leafy green, but the experience of most of its inhabitants remains determinedly inner city. Wimbledon is thus the butt of many a joke.
In short, it’s just the kind of place where you would expect to find a warbling religious sect populated by people who commune with the dead, alongside those who have devoted their lives to spotting extra-terrestrials. And this is exactly the scenario presented by Nigel Williams in his novel They Came From SW19. South West 19, incidentally, is London’s postcode for Wimbledon.
Simon Britton is fourteen and has just lost his dad. Lost is possibly misleading, because it may merely imply that the family head had been mislaid. But in the sense we encounter in They Came From SW19 it means decidedly dead, and not a trip to Barbados or the Lake District. Simon is willing to live with the label, as long as his dad agrees. As the book progresses, however, this assumed agreement becomes less clear.
You see, the other thing that folk in Wimbledon do is regularly talk to the dead. There is a couple called Mr and Mrs Quigley. Not only are they pretty big in the First Church of Christ the Spiritualist, they are also – jointly and individually – pretty big in other parts as well, especially Mr Quigley, who seems to be very well endowed indeed. Simon, after repeated expressions of indifference, decides to join the church and adopt its beliefs. He suffers consternation, however, when speaking in tongues reveals that the area has been invaded by aliens. The event is particularly poignant because it seems to have links with the disappearance of Simon’s friend, who regularly communed with local extra-terrestrials.
But all is not what it seems. Perhaps the friend has not really disappeared. Perhaps he has been taken into an alien ship for the purposes of observation and scientific investigation. Maybe that was what happened to Simon’s father as well, the heart attack being a mere diversion to keep the whole affair secret.
They Came From SW19 is a rather insane farce. It is also very funny and, given the nature of Wimbledon, also highly probable. The place is probably packed with aliens – some of them even tennis players! – with space ships and flying saucers forming the bulk of local traffic jams. The place is even more likely packed with zany charismatics who speak in tongues, commune with the dead and make strange claims about details of their diet.
But the novel is not just a funny story. Nigel Williams is always more subtle than this. At the core of the book is an observation about cultural currency. People adopt and trade foibles to make statements about their identity and their claims to influence. But more often than not, these complicated facades are really hides within which ultimate frailty can be concealed. These people, after all, have to live with living in Wimbledon.
January 27, 2014
A warm book (not as humorous as the Wimbledon Poisoner but still a good read) with a heartbreaking last page.
November 17, 2015
Great fun and a little disturbing, in keeping with the character of the rest of the trilogy.
August 24, 2025
He has been known to hold boys upside down on the rugby pitch and swat the ball with their heads. He regards brain-damage as character-forming, which, for someone of his level of intelligence, is an entirely consistent position. (p. 88)
This is an out-of-print book from 1993 that only a few hundred people have shelved on Goodreads. I paid $7 for a used copy and the paperback I received appears to have been signed by the author. My point is that there’s every indication this title had been consigned to the mists of history, so I’m really not sure how it came to the attention of the friend who recommended it to me. And I’m not going to tell you it’s a lost classic that you have to rush out and buy, but I did find it pretty entertaining. It’s about a teen being raised in a quirky cult that styles itself the “First Church of Christ the Spiritualist”. The story is mostly farce, with some sobering moments.
After his father passes away the protagonist expresses a wistfulness for their routine interactions which—having lost my own father several years ago—resonated with me:
I wanted to talk to him so much. I wanted him to say the things he always used to say to me. Not big, important things but just those ordinary remarks… (p. 55)
(crosspost)
May 27, 2023
2/10 11% “one of the funniest writers around” (Sunday Telegraph) - despite being well written and a plot with potential, didn’t laugh or even mild-titter once in 280 pages. Straight to charity shop with the others in this very disappointing box set. One plus point, it’s way better than my other current slow read, Dianetics. Boy am I looking forward to a good book next as the only way is up!
June 6, 2017
I really enjoyed the Wimbledon Poisoner. This was ok...it passed the time...and had a couple of laugh out loud moments. Not one to bump to the top of your reading lists.
December 16, 2023
Such a disappointment. I was expecting to enjoy this but now wish I’d given up reading it and not wasted hours of my life. This was supposed to be funny-I don’t think so !
December 31, 2024
For me, disappointing on all levels
July 11, 2012
I thought this might be an appropriate book to read during Wimbledon fortnight, though it was some way into the book before anyone actually mentioned tennis. I reached the halfway point convinced the author was a comic genius – this was humour to split the sides , and it was far more accessible than the other stuff I have read by him, which tended towards in-jokes about TV scriptwriters. Its sheer irreverence was a breath of fresh air. At one point the narrator reflects: “You can’t take Jesus back to the shop, guys. He doesn’t come on approval. He is even harder to dispose of than a subscription to the Reader’s Digest”. I did think that members of the Aetherius Society, who would perhaps consider themselves to be satirised by this book, might even have laughed.
Then came Part 2, and there was a change of gear. The humour dried up, events became confusing and scenes started to go on...and on...and on.... At one point I considered speed-reading. I would concede that the progress of events is broadly satisfying to the reader, but in its concluding sections the book seems to lay claim to a real-world relevance and a sort of grittiness that sat uncomfortably with the high farce that had gone before.
Then came Part 2, and there was a change of gear. The humour dried up, events became confusing and scenes started to go on...and on...and on.... At one point I considered speed-reading. I would concede that the progress of events is broadly satisfying to the reader, but in its concluding sections the book seems to lay claim to a real-world relevance and a sort of grittiness that sat uncomfortably with the high farce that had gone before.
September 2, 2015
Billed as the second volume in the Wimbledon trilogy and hence a sequel to the Wimbledon Poisoner (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...), in reality They Came from SW19 has very little in common with the previous novel, other than the SW19 setting.
The Wimbledon Poisoner was a farcical black comedy and a neat, if dated, dissection of late 80s English suburban life.
But They Came from SW19 errs into the fantastical - spiritualists and UFOlogists - and as such the targets are easier and the social insights correspondingly less penetrating, and consequently the novel is less funny.
The novel is more plot driven and the fantastical elements (aliens, ghosts, spirits) turn out to have a more down-to-earth explanation, albeit one that doesn't really explain some of what was experienced by the characters.
Indeed whereas I described the Wimbledon Poisoner as David Lodge meets Reggie Perrin, this one reminds me of nothing more than .... Scooby Doo!
The Wimbledon Poisoner was a farcical black comedy and a neat, if dated, dissection of late 80s English suburban life.
But They Came from SW19 errs into the fantastical - spiritualists and UFOlogists - and as such the targets are easier and the social insights correspondingly less penetrating, and consequently the novel is less funny.
The novel is more plot driven and the fantastical elements (aliens, ghosts, spirits) turn out to have a more down-to-earth explanation, albeit one that doesn't really explain some of what was experienced by the characters.
Indeed whereas I described the Wimbledon Poisoner as David Lodge meets Reggie Perrin, this one reminds me of nothing more than .... Scooby Doo!
November 25, 2013
Read this over the weekend. I remembered the Wimbledon Poisonner from years ago. This has the same sense of humour and I thought the psychology of the mad sect and of the teenage mind was done pretty well. It was let down by the umbra ex machina at the end however. So five stars until p.200 and going down hill from there....
May 24, 2009
I loved the humor from the start, and fortunately the comedy continued throughout the novel. It was also set south of the river Thames near where I live in London, so it was a nice bit of culture for me as well. Though the story line is a bit of a strech, it was very entertaining.
June 25, 2014
Published in 1992, I don't think this book has aged very well and I just didn't find it anything but excruciating. It was simply trying to hard.
January 7, 2015
Not sure I'm the target audience here - seems like a book for teenagers, but reasonably written and some clever comment on sects.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews