Novels set in Brixton/surrounding area
- Thread starter trashpony
- Start date
what other books should I read? Actually I could extend to North London quite happily but there tend to be more novels set there than in South London 
toblerone3
Grrrrr
I enjoyed
The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_Peckham_Rye
Poor Cow by Nell Dunn Set in Battersea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_Cow
The Family Arsenal by Paul Theroux set in Deptford
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_Arsenal
The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_Peckham_Rye
Poor Cow by Nell Dunn Set in Battersea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_Cow
The Family Arsenal by Paul Theroux set in Deptford
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_Arsenal
bluestreak
HomosexualityIsStalin’sAtomBombtoDestroyAmerica
it's got some brixton in it.
what's the name of the guy who wrote loads of comic books who also wrote loads of unsavoury novels about punks and squatters and crusties in brixton. sure his initials were MM.
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Martin Millar.
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
(Not sure he "wrote loads of comic books" though. Are you conflating him with Mark Millar?)
oryx
Sitting on the bok of the day
Jeff Dyer 'The Colour of Memory'.. its pretty good. It has an interestin' aside on 'The Albert'.
Would also highly recommend that, also Paris Trance.
ETA also Angela Carter's Wise Children - set in Brixton during the music hall era.
ash
Inittogether
The lonely londoners is set in Notting Hill but Brixton is mentioned - Windrush generation. Also the 'low life' cant remember what area. Have you read 'Hanover square' really good account of the 40s in Earls Court and any other Patrick Hamilton book ( I think) will be London.
There is a reallly good book set in Kennington in the 50's or 60's but can't remember the name - sorry.
There is a reallly good book set in Kennington in the 50's or 60's but can't remember the name - sorry.
ChrisSouth
Well-Known Member
'Testament of Youth', Vera Brittain, takes part, in part, in around Denmark Hill, when she was nursing at King's College. There's mentions of Ruskin Park, and The Fox on the Hill, which is now an awful Wetherspoons.
Agree about The Room of Lost Things.
Agree about The Room of Lost Things.
shakespearegirl
just worked out taglines
London Pidgeon Wars by Patrick Neate is partially set in (and above) Brixton.
Really enjoyed Room of Lost Things. The drycleaners it was set in was my local one for 9 years before it shut down
Really enjoyed Room of Lost Things. The drycleaners it was set in was my local one for 9 years before it shut down
editor
hiraethified
He gave a talk at Offline once. Nice fella. Some of my friends appear in his novels.
trashpony
Hag
Thaw
Aye like, so it is.
Stella Duffy, Adam Mars-Jones, Evie Wyld, Brian Chikwava, Alex Wheatle, Clare Peake, and Jeremy Page were all speaking at the Warrior in LBJ in June. I think one of them (Chikwava?) was nicknamed The Bard of Brixton and writes about Brixton.
And not really about Brixton, but in Alan Moore's "From Hell" William Gull goes to Herne Hill to form 1 point of the Masonic star of London and theres a nice picture of The Half Moon.
And theres a play called "Vincent in Brixton" about van Gogh
And not really about Brixton, but in Alan Moore's "From Hell" William Gull goes to Herne Hill to form 1 point of the Masonic star of London and theres a nice picture of The Half Moon.
And theres a play called "Vincent in Brixton" about van Gogh
ringo
Macaroni cheese controller
Billy Brown, I'll Tell Your Mother - Bill Brown.
Recommended by someone on here I think. About growing up in Brixton during the war years etc. Haven't read it yet but lent it to my child minder (Brixton born lady in her 50's) and she said it was great and very evocative of her time growing up here.
Recommended by someone on here I think. About growing up in Brixton during the war years etc. Haven't read it yet but lent it to my child minder (Brixton born lady in her 50's) and she said it was great and very evocative of her time growing up here.
marty21
One on one? You're crazy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2007/oct/11/returnoftheeastendnovel
Came across this article about novels set in East London - whilst trying to remember the title of a book I read last year -
Low Life - Alexander Baron - an east end chancer in the 50s, getting by day by day, throuigh crap jobs or gambling - thought it was excellent
Came across this article about novels set in East London - whilst trying to remember the title of a book I read last year -
Low Life - Alexander Baron - an east end chancer in the 50s, getting by day by day, throuigh crap jobs or gambling - thought it was excellent
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
It also takes part just by Myatts Field park in a building that became part of Goldsmith's. I've been in the chapel which is now a private residence.
Steel Icarus
ersatz maven
I love "Lux the poet".
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
There are some Sherlock Holmes stories that are set in or mention Brixton. For Camberwell there's the comic novel Augustus Carp, Esq. By Himself Being the Autobiography of a Really Good Man (you can get it free online with the original illustrations).
http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/carp/index.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/carp/index.html
Spandex
A crazy bulbous punchbag of sound
The mystery in A Study in Scarlet starts with Holmes heading to Brixton to investigate a body found in a derelict house.
ericjarvis
give a feck for the feckless
I second the recommendation of Wise Children. I've only read a few of Martin Millar's books so far but definitely recommend "Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation" and "Lux the Poet" both wonderfully weird in a very Brixton way.
King Rat by China Mieville kind of edges into Brixton, but is very much a London novel. 253 by Geoff Ryman is set between Waterloo and Elephant and Castle on the underground, which is only a couple of miles off target. Both are superb books.
King Rat by China Mieville kind of edges into Brixton, but is very much a London novel. 253 by Geoff Ryman is set between Waterloo and Elephant and Castle on the underground, which is only a couple of miles off target. Both are superb books.
The Treatment...set in and around Brockwell Park.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treatment_(novel)
Tis a bit grim in places
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treatment_(novel)
Tis a bit grim in places
vauxhallmum
had to scrap the cheap car
Is Blake Morrison's South of the River set in Brixton? I have read it but can't remember as it was a really annoying book and I have effectively wiped it from my memory banks
Wise Children is excellent, however. But those Martin Millar books, well, I loved them years ago but they are really dated now.
Wise Children is excellent, however. But those Martin Millar books, well, I loved them years ago but they are really dated now.
shakespearegirl
just worked out taglines
That sounds very grim
trashpony
Hag
I agree. Sounds a bit prurient for my liking
Maurice Picarda
Actually, might as well flounce.
Mr Phillips, in John Lanchester's eponymous second novel, is from somewhere in South London, zone 2-ish IIRC. I liked it just as much as I did The Debt to Pleasure - it has the best minutes of a neighbourhood watch meeting ever in contemporary fiction - but few other people agreed, leaving Lanchester with no option but to give up on novels and become, of all things, an authority on the credit crisis and bank regulation.
