Entertainment For Lively Minds
Paperback Writers
Posted by Mr Drayton on 4 February 2010 - 2:02pm.
After a very lucky trawl in a second hand shop I returned home with a bag full of books by George Tremlett and Richard Allen.
Two writers who for me are the epitome of the 1970's teenage book case. Any others?
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For The Dads
which Richard Allen ones did you get ,Mr D ? I have them all. Suedehead is my favourite,though favourite is a strong word as the back of a Cornflakes box is a better read
I got 6
but I can't be arsed to go upstairs and get them as I've just got in and had a beer.
I got a Sven Hassel - Monte Casino - to see what I loved about them, I devoured them all when I was a kid. What a load of badly written rubbish. I've still not tracked down Boys and Sex and Girls and Sex, both Penguin I think. I learnt alot from those two beauties.
Isn't it strange?
It's been, ooh... almost 40 years since I read one of them, yet seeing those book jackets immediately made me think of the books of Oliver Grape. Then I found this website:
http://www.trashfiction.co.uk/its_a_knockup.html
and it turns out 'Oliver Grape' was 'Timothy Lea,' who in reality is Christopher Wood. I seem to recall 'Crumpet Voluntary' was quite naughty, or at least seemed like it when I was 13.
This
All the other biker ones - Buttons, Freewheeling Frank, Hells Angels etc. All a dream for a spotty 14 year old from Macclesfield. I also loved pulp Westerns, especially Louis L'Amour, the "Edge" series and of course JT Edson
New English Library...
always the mark of a quality 1970s paperback :-)
Sven Hassel...
...I loved those books. The first in the series was quite a stirring anti-war read, in the style of "All Quiet on the Western Front", then a series of implausible adventures followed, starring characters who'd been killed off in the first one. And why was "Tiny" called "Little John" in some and not others. The books were certainly brutal, but there was a strong core of humanity running through.
Rumour hath it that Mr Hassel was not, in fact, a Norwegian prisoner compelled to fight for the Nazis, but a Nazi sympathiser and all round bad egg. Still, in Porta he created an indisputably classic character.
Norwegian
he wasn't. He was Danish.
The changes of name depended on the translator.
The Old Man was Old 'Un and sometimes Alte in some of the books. I demolished them all in two weeks in early summer 1987 whilst waiting for my first year exam results at university.
I should go back and read some of them again. Whilst a lot of the books were utter toss, a few were dark tales of life during the paranoid collapse of the Nazis and made compelling reading.
Ouch. I have no idea where
"Norwegian" came from...I shall go and read "The Commissar" 50 times as penance.
As a teenager in the 70's
I had a bit of a sci-fi phase.
Brian Aldiss and Isaac Asimov were ok, but JG Ballard was a particular favourite.
Struggled through about two and a half of Frank Herberts Dune books but seemed too much like schoolwork, having to learn all those new words.
Chris Foss
As this is about covers as much as content, I munched my way through the local library stock of Sci-fi paperbacks by Doc Smith, Keith Roberts, Ballard, Asimov et al. usually guided by the back cover blurb and a blinding spaceship or robot on the front cover
One cover artist defined the look completely, usually in a Panther paperback
An instant transport to teenage years is at
http://www.chrisfossart.com/
Now why hasn't the future turned out like this?
70s Sci-fi
I am also a fan of anything with a Chris Foss on the cover and can recommend the paintings of Glenn Brown that I saw at the Tate Liverpool last year. Foss on an epic scale. However, I was recently "invited" to visit an antiques fair by the FPO and found a box full of 70s Michael Moorcock paperbacks (Hawkmoon, Count Brass, Runestaff etc) - a huge pile for a tenner. Instant Proustian rush back to school days and bought the lot. In retrospect not as good as the Jerry Cornelius novels already on my shelf but worth it for the sheer delight of being 14 again.
Ooh yes..
I used to love looking at the covers of my dad's Asimov books in the early 70's. The Stars Like Dust was a particular favourite.
In fact
that is exactly what my kids do today, that and delighting in telling me how many pages they have and have you read them all...
Stranger in a Strange Land
That was a long difficult read.
At Bowie's behest, I tried some William Burroughs. Blimey.
Edge - A New Kind of Western Hero
Violence and sex - what more could a teenage boy want?
http://rjdent.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/george-g-gilmans-edge-a-new-kind-...
I actually
saved up my pocket money and bought that Gary Glitter book.
But enough about last year...