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Suedehead
Skinheads were dead, man. Phased out. Home had never appealed. All his life he had dreamed about a plush flat somewhere in the West End of London. So now he would make the leap from poverty street into the affluent society. In one gigantic jump.
Fresh out of stir after kicking a police sergeant’s head in, former skinhead Joe Hawkins is heading for the big time – a job in a firm of stockbrokers, a swanky flat and (hopefully) plenty of money. A whole new style is called for – so Joe becomes a Suedehead.
The hair is a few millimetres longer, the uniform a velvet-collared crombie coat, bowler hat and neatly-furled umbrella – with razor sharp tip. For while Joe might be playing the establishment pet, he remains the unrepentently vicious, cunning hooligan from Skinhead, intent on pulling women, stealing and putting the boot in. It’s not long before he finds some other Suedes willing to commit mayhem under cover of respectability... but can Joe and respectability ever really get along?
Suedehead is the second of Richard Allen’s era-defining cult novels featuring anti-hero Joe Hawkins. First published in 1971, this new edition features an introduction by Andrew Stevens.
110 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Richard Allen
29 books33 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
'Richard Allen' is the name on the front cover of the million-selling Skinhead books. The name was thought of by the editors at the London publishing firm New English Library and given by them to Jim Moffatt, one of a number of hack writers who churned out their books to order.
Born of Irish extraction, Jim Moffatt went to Britain and learnt his trade writing up to six stories a week (thrillers, spies, Westerns) for pulp fiction magazines. He moved on to writing books, and by the mid-seventies reckoned he had produced 250 in the previous 20 years, at a rate of 10,000 words a day when deadlines were approaching. Meanwhile, the managing director of the ailing New English Library imprint was desperate to make inroads into a new audience of younger readers; his editorial board came up with the idea of commissioning a novel set in the emerging skinhead subculture. In six days Moffatt wrote Skinhead. The book was an immediate hit, and many of its youthful readers were convinced that the author was a real hooligan, not a 55-year-old Canadian who always wore a jacket and tie and whose lurid tales of sex and street violence were written from the same seafront cottage in Sidmouth in which he also penned a column for the local paper. Soon after Skinhead Farewell Moffatt's real-life relationship with NEL came to an end.
Moffatt died of cancer in the early nineties, just at the time when the skinhead style was coming back into fashion.
'Richard Allen' is the name on the front cover of the million-selling Skinhead books. The name was thought of by the editors at the London publishing firm New English Library and given by them to Jim Moffatt, one of a number of hack writers who churned out their books to order.
Born of Irish extraction, Jim Moffatt went to Britain and learnt his trade writing up to six stories a week (thrillers, spies, Westerns) for pulp fiction magazines. He moved on to writing books, and by the mid-seventies reckoned he had produced 250 in the previous 20 years, at a rate of 10,000 words a day when deadlines were approaching. Meanwhile, the managing director of the ailing New English Library imprint was desperate to make inroads into a new audience of younger readers; his editorial board came up with the idea of commissioning a novel set in the emerging skinhead subculture. In six days Moffatt wrote Skinhead. The book was an immediate hit, and many of its youthful readers were convinced that the author was a real hooligan, not a 55-year-old Canadian who always wore a jacket and tie and whose lurid tales of sex and street violence were written from the same seafront cottage in Sidmouth in which he also penned a column for the local paper. Soon after Skinhead Farewell Moffatt's real-life relationship with NEL came to an end.
Moffatt died of cancer in the early nineties, just at the time when the skinhead style was coming back into fashion.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 7, 2021
It was an interesting read back in the 1970's but it is very dated now. I think I was being generous with a 3 rating.
It was an attractive read when I was a young boy growing up learning about life but certainly not the sort of novel I would read these days. More suited to a teenager than someone my age,
It was an attractive read when I was a young boy growing up learning about life but certainly not the sort of novel I would read these days. More suited to a teenager than someone my age,
November 30, 2009
A Clockwork Orange, it ain't.
Trashily diverting read about a young hoodlum who sets himself up as a proper little city gent whilst indulging a passion for aggro and tarts.
The author lays his Daily Mail cards on the table in a note at the beginning, lamenting the failures of our 'permissable society'. What next in this Broken Britain? Young men weeing on war memorials?
Trashily diverting read about a young hoodlum who sets himself up as a proper little city gent whilst indulging a passion for aggro and tarts.
The author lays his Daily Mail cards on the table in a note at the beginning, lamenting the failures of our 'permissable society'. What next in this Broken Britain? Young men weeing on war memorials?
August 26, 2023
I read 'Skinhead' earlier this year and decided I wasn't going to read any more of this rubbish. However, I'm between books, had this and the third book purchased and waiting and confidently knew I could read this in an hour or two...
Suedehead is pretty much the same plot as 'Skinhead'. Joe Hawkins hates everyone and everything. He gets out of prison and instead of going back to his skinhead gang and the East End decides he's going to make something of his life so he gets a job in a stockbrokers, gets a swanky flat and dresses sharp whilst doing a bit of shagging and fighting.
There is far less sex and violence in this book than in 'Skinhead' and the book is much better off for it. That's not to say the book is 'good' (it's pretty terrible) but at least every page isn't flitting between graphic sex and violence. It doesn't feel quite as objectionable on every page but there are still exceptionally high levels of homophobia, misogyny, racism, domestic violence and right wing values - the entire book seems to veer from hate crime to planning sexual violence or exploitation and back again.
It's unavoidable, the book is exceptionally offensive, and laughably implausible (particularly the ease in which Hawkins gets access to resources like a flat and a top job), but it's not without merit (kind of).
In 'Skinhead' I think Allen's key message was society was permissive and causing youth to go wild and the solution was greater authoritarianism. The book was a huge seller and in many ways may have influenced skinhead culture rather than captured it. In this book the message is broadly the same (Hawkins hates 'everything' and his gang hate 'everything' too) but there is a clearer message too. In this book Hawkins carries on thinking he is owned something and he gets handout after handout off people for some reason to give him a leg up and yet there is a constant narrative - you don't belong in middle-class spaces. He doesn't have the money to support his high living and basically needs to steal, and engage in other crime to support himself. It's a book which tells it's working class readership, 'you see all them rich people and their nice clothes and houses - you can't have this.' It laughs at the idea of a meritocracy. I'm not 100% sure Allen is empathising with the working class or ridiculing them but nevertheless it is a constant narrative - no matter how much Hawkins steals or earns he can never keep up and his desire to make something of his life is futile.
Like in the first book he ends up with a gang of sort but it is evident that Hawkins isn't the leader and they don't fear him. In some ways they are independent of each other and have no hierarchy but it's clear the bonds are looser and each is very individualistic. It's almost as if the book is saying, 'these characters have no sense of bond or community'. I think it predates Thatcherism and the 'me first' culture by a good decade!
A few other observations for a 21st Century reader...Hawkins is probably gay and in deep denial. There are a couple of instances of him 'accidentally' picking up gay men with a view to robbing them. Likewise his constant objectification of women doesn't mark him out to be a stud, rather makes him appear to a) need a mother figure and b) constantly prove his masculinity to himself. I doubt anyone reading this in the early 70's would have thought he was gay but it kind of jumps out. Even though he is a horrible, selfish human being, in this book I got the sense that he was just desperate for someone to take care of him.
I'm not sure of the publication date, but I suspect many of the tropes in the book (the sharp dressing, bowler hats, sharpened umbrellas and older women sexual violence fantasies) seem ripped straight out of 'A Clockwork Orange' film released the same year and withdrawn due to the violent copycats in the UK. At the rate Allen was churning these out, I suspect he saw the film and then saw his 'sequel' on screen.
I also think Allen is nodding to his audience. Hawkins is often in flats with lots of books and it's made clear that he isn't particularly literate. A few times in the book he is seen to better himself and to try and read. I suspect Allen is waving and appreciating his young male working class audience who for which 'Suedehead' may have been the second book they ever struggled through.
I really wouldn't go out of one's way to read this. Being 'better' than 'Skinhead' is one thing and being not quite as horrifically prejudiced isn't exactly a glowing compliment but at least this book has a message of sorts. It's still a stupid book with a stupid plot and a stupid ending.
Suedehead is pretty much the same plot as 'Skinhead'. Joe Hawkins hates everyone and everything. He gets out of prison and instead of going back to his skinhead gang and the East End decides he's going to make something of his life so he gets a job in a stockbrokers, gets a swanky flat and dresses sharp whilst doing a bit of shagging and fighting.
There is far less sex and violence in this book than in 'Skinhead' and the book is much better off for it. That's not to say the book is 'good' (it's pretty terrible) but at least every page isn't flitting between graphic sex and violence. It doesn't feel quite as objectionable on every page but there are still exceptionally high levels of homophobia, misogyny, racism, domestic violence and right wing values - the entire book seems to veer from hate crime to planning sexual violence or exploitation and back again.
It's unavoidable, the book is exceptionally offensive, and laughably implausible (particularly the ease in which Hawkins gets access to resources like a flat and a top job), but it's not without merit (kind of).
In 'Skinhead' I think Allen's key message was society was permissive and causing youth to go wild and the solution was greater authoritarianism. The book was a huge seller and in many ways may have influenced skinhead culture rather than captured it. In this book the message is broadly the same (Hawkins hates 'everything' and his gang hate 'everything' too) but there is a clearer message too. In this book Hawkins carries on thinking he is owned something and he gets handout after handout off people for some reason to give him a leg up and yet there is a constant narrative - you don't belong in middle-class spaces. He doesn't have the money to support his high living and basically needs to steal, and engage in other crime to support himself. It's a book which tells it's working class readership, 'you see all them rich people and their nice clothes and houses - you can't have this.' It laughs at the idea of a meritocracy. I'm not 100% sure Allen is empathising with the working class or ridiculing them but nevertheless it is a constant narrative - no matter how much Hawkins steals or earns he can never keep up and his desire to make something of his life is futile.
Like in the first book he ends up with a gang of sort but it is evident that Hawkins isn't the leader and they don't fear him. In some ways they are independent of each other and have no hierarchy but it's clear the bonds are looser and each is very individualistic. It's almost as if the book is saying, 'these characters have no sense of bond or community'. I think it predates Thatcherism and the 'me first' culture by a good decade!
A few other observations for a 21st Century reader...Hawkins is probably gay and in deep denial. There are a couple of instances of him 'accidentally' picking up gay men with a view to robbing them. Likewise his constant objectification of women doesn't mark him out to be a stud, rather makes him appear to a) need a mother figure and b) constantly prove his masculinity to himself. I doubt anyone reading this in the early 70's would have thought he was gay but it kind of jumps out. Even though he is a horrible, selfish human being, in this book I got the sense that he was just desperate for someone to take care of him.
I'm not sure of the publication date, but I suspect many of the tropes in the book (the sharp dressing, bowler hats, sharpened umbrellas and older women sexual violence fantasies) seem ripped straight out of 'A Clockwork Orange' film released the same year and withdrawn due to the violent copycats in the UK. At the rate Allen was churning these out, I suspect he saw the film and then saw his 'sequel' on screen.
I also think Allen is nodding to his audience. Hawkins is often in flats with lots of books and it's made clear that he isn't particularly literate. A few times in the book he is seen to better himself and to try and read. I suspect Allen is waving and appreciating his young male working class audience who for which 'Suedehead' may have been the second book they ever struggled through.
I really wouldn't go out of one's way to read this. Being 'better' than 'Skinhead' is one thing and being not quite as horrifically prejudiced isn't exactly a glowing compliment but at least this book has a message of sorts. It's still a stupid book with a stupid plot and a stupid ending.
June 18, 2021
Skinheads and spearheads were part of my life growing up in the 1970s. For many it was a fashion a reaction to beatings mods rockers and hippies but later they came to represent racists and neofascists
November 15, 2019
Good old English pulp fiction. It was OK, a quick read but not believable in some situation.
October 17, 2021
A quick read, I finished in an an hour or so, I felt this book lacked the social commentary of it’s predecessor and just relied on sex and violence for shock value.
June 26, 2007
Pretty badly written and quite teenage, but a quick trashy read with some interesting social commentary. Also, had a lovely cover, but you wouldn't know that.
August 29, 2012
I thought it was good in 1971 (LOL)
January 31, 2013
Annoying the kindle version is very badly typeset and has fixed line breaks.
That aside, not a bad book. Has a feel of Quadrophenia meets Clockwork Orange to it.
That aside, not a bad book. Has a feel of Quadrophenia meets Clockwork Orange to it.
April 8, 2013
Not the Smiths' song ;)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews