The Crust On Its Uppers by Derek Raymond
'It's a tale of someone who wanted to go and go-who was sick of the dead-on-its-feet upper crust he was born into, that he didn't believe in, didn't want, whose values were meaningless, that did nothing but hold him back from his first nanny onwards. I wanted to chip my way out of that background which held me like a flea in a block of ice, and crime was the only chisel I could find.' First published in 1962, The Crust on Its Uppers, Derek Raymond's first novel (written when he was Robin Cook) is a gripping tale of class betrayal. With ruthless precision, it brings vividly to life a Britain of spivs, crooked toffs and bent coppers - in fact, a Britain that in its bare essentials has changed little over the last 30 years.
?Best place to start is the slangy baroque of the re-issued The Crust On Its Uppers, Raymond?s autobiographical account of the dodgy transactions between high class wide boys and low class villainsYou won?t read a better novel about 60s London..? i-D ?Tremendous black comedy of Chelsea gangland, written and set in the early Sixties, on the cusp of swinging London.? The Face ?A breathlessly good read, as funny, relevant and resonant at it was thirty years ago.? Literary Review ?Peopled by a fast-talking shower of queens, spades, morries, slags, shysters, grifters and grafters of every description, it is one of the great London novels.? New Statesman
Derek Raymond was born Robin Cook in 1931. His novels include A State of Denmark, The Crust on its Uppers, I Was Dora Suarez and How the Dead Live, which was made into a film. The son of a textile magnate, he dropped out of Eton aged sixteen and spent much of his early career among criminals and was employed at various times as a pornographer, organiser of illegal gambling, money launderer, pig-slaughterer and minicab driver. He died in London in 1994.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781852422684 |
| ISBN 10 | 1852422688 |
| Title | The Crust On Its Uppers |
| Author | Derek Raymond |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Profile Books Ltd |
| Year published | 1992-08-15 |
| Number of pages | 224 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |