An unnamed male teenage narrator describes summer in London in 1958. In the earlier parts, his main concerns are his love for ex-girlfriend Crepe Suzette, his misgivings about his family, and spending time with his various friends. However, as the novel progresses, he describes the rising racial tensions of the time, which inevitably spill over into violence.

The narrator lives in a poorer part of London which he refers to as Napoli, and whose population is very multi-cultural, and also houses a lot of people on the fringes of society at the time, such as homosexuals and drug addicts. A new youth culture is just emerging and so is the popularity of jazz music in Britain.

I enjoyed this book, on the whole, although I found the narrator hard to engage with, despite the fact that we were seeing events through his eyes. He seems to have more acquaintances than actual friends, and many of those are fairly transient characters, who seem to serve as a sounding board for the narrator's thoughts and beliefs.

Things do become more heated at the close of the book, and with it, the maturing narrator also starts to care about bigger issues. However, although he has strong feelings about the events that take place, I found little emotion in his telling of such events.

I wasn't around to experience the era or the location of the times described, but the telling of the story does seem to have an air of authenticity about it, and described London as a vibrant and exciting place to be, but with an air of underlying tension.

I usually prefer character driven books, but in this novel, the characters take second place to the city of London itself, which is really the biggest character of all.

Overall, an enjoyable read, and much better than the film adaptation! ( )

A subtle, wry contemporary take on late 1950s London. The unnamed narrator casually observes life around him for most of the book, until the political, social and personal reality of the time and place hit him - and the reader - in the last chapters. MacInnes has an unnerving knack of covering light and dark in the same mocking, objective voice, so that the emotions behind events are all the more powerful when unravelled from the narrator's point of view; I was nearly brought to tears at one point, and the racial tension is staggering. A smart, thoughtful snapshot of twentieth century England, that still applies today, and I particularly have to agree with the psychology of drivers ... ( )

A book about a teenager's view of the scene in London in the 1950s. It is pretty entertaining. In the main it is about the post-war period and the rise of teen culture in England, jazz, drugs all that sort of thing.

The beginning of youth culture in England as the main character runs around taking photos and lusting after a girl. ( )

A book about a teenager's view of the scene in London in the 1950s. It is pretty entertaining. In the main it is about the post-war period and the rise of teen culture in England, jazz, drugs all that sort of thing.

The beginning of youth culture in England as the main character runs around taking photos and lusting after a girl. ( )

Mod novel set amidst the Notting Hill Riots of 1958 – interestingly early articulation of depoliticisation of consumer society.