| LONDON BOOKS is an independent publisher which aims to bring old and new fiction together in a tradition that is original in its subject matter, style and social concerns. We believe that the marginalised fiction of the past can be as relevant and exciting today as when it was first published, and our classic reprints will reflect the language and politics of tougher eras, while our new fiction will focus on emerging writers with something to say and a novel way of getting their messages across. |
|
New Fiction
Malayan Swing
Pete Haynes
Classics
The Angel And The Cuckoo
Gerald Kersh
|
|
| LONDON CLASSICS |
 |
NEW RELEASE
They Drive By Night - James Curtis
Introduction by Jonathan Meades
Released from Pentonville Prison on the same day as a man is hanged, Shorty Mathews visits an old girlfriend only to find her strangled. He panics, sure the police will blame him, and goes on the run on the Great North Road. Back in London the real killer is prowling the streets. The hangman hovers. Someone needs to pay the toll. More cult fiction from James Curtis. MORE >> |
 |
NEW RELEASE
Wide Boys Never Work - Robert Westerby
Introduction by Iain Sinclair
Sacked from his job in a car factory, Jim Bankley joins a gang of wide boys. He is soon earning good money, moving between Soho and the White City dog-track. Life is sweet. But when boss Bill Franks is locked up after a fight with the Gisburg mob things start to change. This is a lost gem from Robert Westerby, right up there with the finest London street fiction. MORE >>
|
|
A Start In Life - Alan Sillitoe
Introduction by DJ Taylor
From his first novel Saturday Night And Sunday Morning to his most recent A Man Of His Time, Alan Sillitoe has consistently produced quality fiction and remains one of English literature's greatest talents. A Start In Life, employing the picaresque form to record the adventures of chancer Michael Cullen in the 'lollipop metropolis' of London, is a great example of his talent. This edition includes a preface by the author. MORE>> |
 |
Night And The City - Gerald Kersh
Introduction by John King
One of the greatest of the so-called London lowlife novels, Night And The City introduces Harry Fabian to the world and with him a prototype for Flash Harrys everywhere. Author Gerald Kersh was a street-wise character and a prolific author, his face a familiar sight around Soho in the Thirties and Forties. This classic text doubles as a social document, capturing as it does the colour and excitement of a vanished London. MORE>> |
 |
The Gilt Kid - James Curtis
Introduction by Paul Willetts
The debut novel from socialist author James Curtis, The Gilt Kid was first published in 1936 and remains as sharp in its dialogue and use of the vernacular as anything around today. Curtis was a maverick talent, his idealism clearly fuelling his work. This London Classics edition features a special interview with Nicolette Edwards, the author's daughter, conducted by Paul Willetts, biographer of Julian Maclaren-Ross. MORE>> |
|
| MORE LONDON TITLES |
 |
Skinheads - John King
Skinheads looks at modern-day England through the eyes of three generations of one family – original ska-loving skin Terry English; his nephew, Oi Oi street punk Nutty Ray; and Terry’s son, ska-punk teenager Lol. Set in the streets and satellites of West London, Skinheads is a tale of honour and loyalty, its outcome influenced by parallel stories from 1969 and the early 1980s. BUY>> |
 |
The Special Ones - Chelsea by the Fans
The Special Ones covers supporter memories stretching back nearly seventy years and belongs to the people who made Chelsea unique, and is a social document as much as a football book. Individual memories are supplemented by sections on the songs sung over the decades as well as the fanzine movement, opinion and humour expressed in song and print. MORE>> |
 |
North Soho 999 - Paul Willetts
Subtitled A True Story Of Gangs And Gun-Crime In 1940s London, Paul Willetts examines a sixty-year-old robbery-turned-murder, a high-profile case that mirrors many of today’s headlines. Mixing clinical research and eccentric characters, North Soho 999 also presents a vivid glimpse of post-war London – a collision of wide boys, detectives, surgeons, a grieving family and the nation’s hangman. MORE>> |
|
Battersea Girl, by Martin Knight
Drawing on the stories told to him over the years by his grandmother, who survived two world wars, the Depression and several family traumas to reach a hundred years of age, Martin Knight has produced a moving tribute to a remarkable woman and a buoyant, river-working community. Comes recommended by Nell Dunn, author of Up The Junction and Poor Cow. MORE>> |
 |
The Brown Dog Affair - Peter Mason
It is exactly one hundred years since a community in South West London stood up and protested against the vivisection industry, taking on the authorities in a series of street protests that shook the establishment and made front-page headlines across the country. Battersea was once a radical, working-class stronghold and the events recounted in Peter Mason’s The Brown Dog Affair shame our current acceptance of political decision-making. MORE>> |
 |
Common People by Martin Knight
John Hay is one of the Common People. Growing up on the Common council estate in a London suburb in the 1960s and 1970s is at first idyllic. The Beatles, Blue Peter and The Beano fill the senses and soccer, scrumping and splits provide the pastimes. But encounters with the police, paedophiles, pretty girls and bullies soon bring down the curtain on childhood innocence. BUY>> |
|
|
|
