Reading the 20th Century discussion

A thread about Colin MacInnes



From Wikipedia:

Colin MacInnes served in the British intelligence corps during World War II, and worked in occupied Germany after VE Day. This led to his first novel, To the Victors the Spoils. Following his return to England, he worked for BBC Radio until he could earn a living from his writing.

He was the author of a number of books depicting London youth and black immigrant culture during the 1950s, in particular City of Spades (1957), Absolute Beginners (1959) and Mr Love & Justice (1960), collectively known as the "London trilogy". Many of his books were set in the Notting Hill area of London, then a poor and racially mixed area, home to many new immigrants and which suffered race riots in 1958. Openly bisexual, he wrote on subjects such as urban squalor, racial issues, bisexuality, drugs, anarchy, and "decadence."


His most famous book is ....

'Absolute Beginners' (1959) by Colin MacInnes

...which I regard as a classic London book.

Here's the synopsis...

London, 1958—Soho, Notting Hill... a world of smoky jazz clubs, coffee bars and hip hang-outs in the center of London's emerging youth culture. The young and restless—the Absolute Beginners—were creating a world as different as they dared from the traditional image of England's green and pleasant land. Follow our young photographer as he records the moments of a young teenager's life in the capital—sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, the era of the first race riots and the lead-up to the swinging sixties.

A twentieth-century cult classic, Absolute Beginners remains the style bible for anyone interested in Mod culture and paints a vivid picture of a changing society with insight and sensitivity.

It's been quite some time since I read any books by Colin MacInnes, however I have very fond memories of his trilogy...

City of Spades, 1957
Absolute Beginners, 1959
Mr Love And Justice, 1960

All three books are also available in a compendium edition. Although the books form (a very loose) trilogy they work just as well (maybe even better) as stand alone reads.

The issues raised in the books, whilst rooted in the 1950s, are still with us, tensions around new immigrant arrivals, and inter-generational conflict.

I should add the book was made into a film in the 1980s which I have never seen but is, reportedly, atrocious. So, if you've seen the film, be reassured the book is much better.

Earlier this year I listened to the Absolute Beginners Backlisted podcast and that discussion makes me keen to read the book again....

https://soundcloud.com/backlistedpod/...

^ Also available on iTunes etc.

I love the cover of this first edition....

He is an author I have long meant to read, Nigeyb. I also love the cover you have posted above. Very evocative of bedsit London - would I be right?

Absolutely correct Susan. The photo is by Roger Mayne. Not a name I'd heard before his recent death. He took the cover photograph on the edition of Absolute Beginners above.

From this obituary...

Roger Mayne, who has died aged 85, was a photographer who captured the squalor and spectacle of Southam Street, a pocket of North Kensington that was to become synonymous with post-war poverty.

The series of photographs taken by Mayne, between 1956 and 1961, are one of the most important photographic surveys of city life in Fifties and Sixties Britain. The images formed a London reflection of the deprivation photographed by Bert Hardy in Glasgow’s Gorbals, a reminder that such harsh conditions could be found only a bus ride away from Westminster.

Southam Street and its W10 environs lay close to where Mayne lived as an aspiring photographer in his early twenties. On the day he discovered the street he took 64 photographs — shots which, he acknowledged, seemed “to hit people’s mental funny bone”. He worked on the move, equipped with a lightweight Zeiss Super Ikonta camera, immersing himself in the hustle and bustle of the block: a hive of activity that was as joyous as it was desperate.

All human life was here. Sharp-dressed West Indians clashed with pipe-thin, trouble-hunting Teddy Boys, girls gossiped in doorways, gangs of young men smoked and gambled. And everywhere around him children darted, danced, ran, cycled and fought. Boys and girls played football in the middle of the road and cricket against the walls. Slowly Mayne earned their trust and recorded their wild, urban upbringing.

One of the street urchins running riot was a young Alan Johnson — later the Labour Home Secretary — whose sister appears in one of Mayne’s photographs. “The houses had been jerry-built in the 19th century for a predicted population drift that never occurred. By the Thirties they’d been declared unfit for human habitation,” noted Johnson. “My sister and I were born into those slums 20 years later. Electricity didn’t arrive until roughly the same time as Roger Mayne. The 1951 census recorded that the number of people living at a density of more than two to a room was four times higher in Southam Street than in London as a whole.”

Click here to read the rest

After a few unsuccessful nominations for our Group Reads I am giving Absolute Beginners (1959) a reread. I last read it in the mid 1980s & interested to discover how it holds up. I loved it back then….



Absolute Beginners (1959)

by

Colin MacInnes



London, 1958. In the smoky jazz clubs of Soho and the coffee bars of Notting Hill the young and the restless - the absolute beginners - are forging a new carefree lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. Moving in the midst of this world of mods and rockers, Teddy gangs and trads., and snapping every scene with his trusty Rolleiflex, is MacInnes' young photographer, whose unique wit and honest views remain the definitive account of London life in the 1950s and what it means to be a teenager. In this twentieth century cult classic, MacInnes captures the spirit of a generation and creates the style bible for anyone interested in Mod culture, and the changing face of London in the era of the first race riots and the lead up to the swinging Sixties

Absolutely loving my reread of...



Absolute Beginners (1959)


The cliched 1960s - peace, love, hippies, flower power etc - only really got started in 1965 - before that it was a continuation of the 1950s, albeit with the rumblings of change just about audible to those whose ears were attuned. What could they hear? Modernity, technicolour and the coming youthquake. Before all that though things were still somewhat buttoned up and monochromatic. Absolute Beginners perfectly captures those early rumblings

I read Absolute Beginners about two years ago when my reading was based upon the Boxall 1000 books to read before you die list.

Cphe wrote:


"I read Absolute Beginners about two years ago when my reading was based upon the Boxall 1000 books to read before you die list."

I just found your review - glad to discover you enjoyed it too

Absolute Beginners (1959) still blimmin marvellous...


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

4/5