The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society discussion

About time we had a dedicated thread for John King.


The wonderful publisher London Books was set up John King and Martin Knight. I don't know Martin Knight's work, however I have read quite a few books by John King, for example The Football Factory, Headhunters, England Away (these three forming a football hooligan trilogy), and a few more besides. They are violent and visceral, however well worth reading if you have the stomach for the content.

I have just become aware of a John King title that had completely passed me by...

'The Liberal Politics of Adolf Hitler'

....and which looks intriguing.

I lost a bit of enthusiasm for King's work after a book called 'Skinheads' so that's probably why my eye was off the ball, King-wise.

Here's a bit more about 'The Liberal Politics of Adolf Hitler'...

It is the not-too-distant future and the individual nations of Europe no longer exist. The EU's mission has reached its final stage in the form of the USE, with power fully centralised. This corporate-driven, closet dictatorship promotes New Democracy, its true nature hidden behind fake smiles, easy debt and empty liberal rhetoric. With the cities run by Good Europeans, locals live as second-class citizens. But across Europe resistance groups fight back, and Britain is no different.

In London, an ambitious young bureaucrat uses Suspicion software to identify threats to the USE, stumbling across a shocking murder just as a high-ranking Controller is about to arrive from Brussels. At the same time, a member of GB45 leaves one of the Free English towns in Wessex and heads towards the capital. Despite the efforts of special police unit Cool, these three men are set on a collision course.

This novel imagines a system where doublespeak reigns and the internet has morphed into propaganda/surveillance tool InterZone; correctness and a denied censorship crushes free expression; physical copies of books, audio and film are illegal; the people's culture is consistently stolen and sold back to them in distorted forms; while enforced digitisation has seen history edited, deleted and rewritten. In the USE, even the most wicked individuals can be reinvented as The Liberal Politics Of Adolf Hitler pays its respects to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. And while John King's new novel provides a vision of the future, it tells us much about the troubling realities of the present day.

Any other King fans? What are your favourite books by him?

Charles Shaar Murray has just reminded me why I couldn't finish Skinheads...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ent...

^ That review absolutely nails it

Nigeyb wrote: "I have just become aware of a John King title that had completely passed me by...

'The Liberal Politics of Adolf Hitler'


I'm underway with 'The Liberal Politics of Adolf Hitler' and am thoroughly enjoying the descriptions of London in this dystopian future where Churchill and de Gaulle are war criminals, branding is everywhere, but, somewhat perversely, all the contemporary songs reference 70s glam and pop classics. Very inventive and enjoyable so far.

I reckon Mark might have nailed it when he commented on his own review of 'The Liberal Politics of Adolf Hitler'.....

"It's not so much a return to form as it is an advancement to a new form... a new form which is every bit as strong as John King has ever been. By way of lazy comparison, this reads like a cross between 1984 and Brave New World for the new millennium, and perfectly in league with each. It's a frightening novel, but at the same time, it's a fun one."

I'll keep you posted

The novel is a departure from the expected, but judged on its own merits I found it quite strong and not just a little bit disturbing. The animal rights aspect provides a segue to his forthcoming novel, Slaughterhouse Prayer, which, I believe, is due for a 2017 publication.

As an American who read it before the Brexit vote, there were bits of the novel that I didn't really understand, so am planning on reading it again at some point.

After the self parody of 'Skinheads' (2008) I am delighted to report that 'The Liberal Politics of Adolf Hitler' is a partial return to form.

Click here to read my review

3/5

PS: After a few references it makes me want to read May Day by John Sommerfield - which is waiting on my shelf for the right moment.

A new interview with John has just appeared online...

https://creaseslikeknives.wordpress.c...

Thanks Mark - enjoyed reading that

Ah, good, I thought he raised some interesting points, and I'm always a captive audience whenever anyone's joining the dots [ie: Weller, Bowie and Orwell].

Nearly halfway through John’s new one, Slaughterhouse Prayer, and... seriously upsetting and unsettling stuff, as one would predict, but there’s no denying it’s a powerful novel. If this one doesn’t turn me vegan, nothing will.

That sounds very promising Mark. I shall seek out Slaughterhouse Prayer. I think John King has made a few missteps lately but that doesn't stop me wanting to carry on reading his work. I'd love to read a proper return to form.


Slaughterhouse Prayer by John King

When a boy realises the grown-ups are killing animals and that he has been eating their bodies, he gives up meat. But should he share the truth and break another child's heart? As a youth he wants to believe in the ability of words and peaceful protest to end the slaughter, while struggling to resist a desire for revenge. Now a disillusioned man trying to rebuild his life, he must choose one of two paths. Acceptance means security, but those meat-industry adverts keep taunting him and some familiar insults - smelly pig, dirty cow, chick-chick-chicken - fill his head.

Slaughterhouse Prayer deals in human invention and our treatment of non-human animals, the manipulation of language and the nature of innocence. Society's pecking order is challenged as the story moves to its margins and beyond. A book of dreams, where visions are more real than reality and sentimentality is a strength, it asks a series of questions. Can a person honestly kill without emotion? Could a vegan soldier stay professional and humane? And will we ever confront the terror that surrounds us?

In Slaughterhouse Prayer a boy, youth and man search for the answers.

Nigeyb wrote: "That sounds very promising Mark. I shall seek out Slaughterhouse Prayer..."

I wouldn’t want to be responsible for recommending anybody read Slaughterhouse Prayer.... it’s that disturbing and unsettling. It’s absolutely remarkable in its power, and it’s making me rethink a hell of a lot of things... but it’s definitely not a book for most people.

Thanks for the warning Mark. Needless to say it just makes me want to read it even more.

My review...

Slaughterhouse Prayer, John King’s ninth novel, builds upon the animal rights passages of his previous novel, The Liberal Politics of Adolph Hitler, and convincingly kicks against the comforting but false narrative of Anthropomorphism-As-An-Excuse, leaving the reader with no doubt that non-human animals naturally possess emotions of fear, panic, memory, anger, disgust, happiness, sadness, surprise, contempt, and more. Slaughterhouse Prayer is a brutal and unflinching novel of guilt and innocence and hypocrisy which, at its very core, exposes how and why most humans are manipulated into excusing or turning a blind eye to the horrors of hunting, vivisection, and the meat, dairy and leather industries.

More than anything, it’s a novel that took real courage to write and to publish, one that guarantees a reaction, and one that will implicate many, if not most, of its readers. Inevitably, there will be those reviews claiming that the author pushed it far too far — maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. That’s not for me to say. It’s a novel as unsettling as it is upsetting, but its power cannot be dismissed or overstated.

Sounds essential reading Mark - and will indeed be reading it


Thanks for such an inspiring review

I’m very much looking forward -- a bit nervously -- to reading as many reviews of the book as possible. John really put himself up against it with this one, it’s going to elicit some very extreme reactions, and the controversial content is sure to trigger arguments about banning books. It’s important to remember, though, that the most upsetting passages haven’t been creatively embellished by artistic or poetic license. The horrors are accurate... more reportage than prose.

In the end, I’m firm in my belief that he’s written a book that needed to be written.

I'm underway with Slaughterhouse Prayer by John King - already it's a visceral read

Yep, I think "visceral" is the right word for this one. I can’t imagine anybody finding it to be a comfortable read, but then comfort wasn’t King’s aim with this one. Here’s wishing you the required intestinal fortitude...

Mark wrote: "Nearly halfway through John’s new one, Slaughterhouse Prayer, and... seriously upsetting and unsettling stuff, as one would predict, but there’s no denying it’s a powerful novel. If this one doesn’t turn me vegan, nothing will."

The section between pages 145 and 152 about the brothers, Peter and Paul, who also happen to be pigs and their short, traumatic lives, culminating in their slaughter is as harrowing a thing as I have ever read.

If I wasn't already a vegan it would be enough to convert me on the spot.

I’m glad to hear that you’re going well with the novel -- it’s certainly not for everybody, and I’d be very cautious in recommending it to anyone in particular. Strong stuff, but probably far too strong for most people.

I'm gripped by it Mark but it is a weird one. I wonder what many of his long term readers make of it.

It's a strange hotpotch - you've got his usual working class obsessions...pubs, pints, mod clothing, Northern Soul rarities, and references to bands like Conflict, Crass, Flux of Pink Indians etc, mixed in with animal rights militancy taken to extremes.

Is JK himself rabidly anti-meat eaters and the associated industry? If so how does that that stack up with his previous work which has rarely mentioned it? Or is parodying that kind of extremism? Does JK buy into the revenge fantasy he is depicting in this book? Does he genuinely demonise anyone who works in meat production industry?

I'm largely sympathetic to the tone of the book but it certainly takes no prisoners and I'd be interested to what extent it reflects JK's own views.

I don’t know the answers to most of those [very good] questions, but I do know that John wrote the novel because he felt he needed to, and had been feeling that way for years. He knew that he was up against it with this one, but wasn’t overly concerned with how it might be received -- either by long-time readers of his, or by newcomers. I know that John doesn’t eat meat, but we’ve had meals together where I ate meat, and he had no problems sitting at the same table.

I didn't know you knew him Mark. That's really interesting - and helpful. I'm slightly relieved that any anti-meat passion doesn't extend too far despite, agreeing with many of the sentiments expressed in the book. Overall I think hearts and minds are won through persuasion and living by example, rather than aggressively confronting those with different views.

I love how he keeps slipping in cooking and recipes into the narrative. And, as an allotment holder, the allotment parts are also really adding to my enjoyment.

Much like The Liberal Politics of Adolph Hitler before, there’s an awful lot packed into Slaughterhouse Prayer, some of it between the lines. I finished reading each knowing that each would be re-read at some point. Almost out of necessity.

I first met John when Paul Willetts gave a reading for his Rendezvous At The Russian Tea Rooms, so I’ve known him for a few years now, staying in touch and always seeing him when we’re in London. And, like Paul, John’s a hell of a lovely gent.

I've now finished...


Slaughterhouse Prayer

Good but flawed I'd say

Here’s my review

4/5

I'm underway with....


London Country (2023)


....the newish one from John King that had somehow slipped by without me knowing about it until the other week



A punk with a sampler, a nurse on a mission, a skinhead with a thirst – these three big-hearted locals just want to be left alone to live their lives to the scorching sounds of the Herbert Hi-Fi, but events are clouding their moods. When two friends look sure to clash in deadly fashion, a monster steps out of the shadows and romance looms in the shape of someone who may or may not have been abducted by aliens, some tough decisions are needed. And these decisions will have consequences.

While the Establishment obsesses over Brexit and Trump, the realities are very different for those on the boundaries of London Town. In these freedom-loving lands, where past and future merge in a never-ending present, honesty remains the best policy. Wrongs must be righted. A lost soul saved. With its eclectic cast of characters – none perfect, one possibly in spirit – London Country is an upbeat tale from the margins. Out here, different rules apply. Anything is possible.