what was new
October-December 2002
22 December 2002
In a resolute refusal to pander to Yulephiliacs, this week's new books have no festive associations whatsoever. Two British novels (Goebbels & Gladys and Hostile Witness) are joined by two from the States (Up Your Banners and The Inner Circle) and a volume of poetry from Rod McKuen.
Christmas? Bah, humbug. (Well, alright, you can have some Morecambe & Wise then.)
14 December 2002
We've got a mixed bag as ever, then. Up Pompeii! requires little introduction, but you may not remember the 1970s SF series Star Maidens quite as well. Elsewhere, I tried another Christopher Hodder-Williams book, in the shape of The Cummings Report, but I think I'll leave it at that. And there are a couple of additions to existing pages, most notably a making-of-the-movie type thing for Absolute Beginners.
7 December 2002
Two new books to review: All Sauce For The Gander, a deservedly obscure novel involving a pop star (for completists only), and the utterly magnificent Nazi Lady by the great Gillian Freeman.
And then there are some new cover scans. I found a nice Tommy Steele biography this week, which prompted me to add three vintage rock & roll biographies. And, in recognition of the fact that at the moment I'm losing the struggle to keep control of the pile of books by my desk, I've scanned some covers of books that I have yet to read: fortunately they all have early-'70s covers featuring young ladies in varying states of undress, so no doubt some people will enjoy them.
3 December 2002
As if in apology for the outbreak of excellent taste at the weekend, here are some proper trash novels: a brace of British novels about rabies. Also an early-60s social comedy, Two Gentlemen Sharing, a terrible teen-pop novel, Heaven Can't Wait, and a couple of additions to existing non-fiction pages: The Happy Hooker and The Black Panther Story.
30 November 2002
Four novels join our Miscellaneous page today, including two of the very best books you'll find on this site or anywhere else: the spectacularly unrestrained Satan, and the harrowing Welsh tragedy The Disaster. In case you don't come here for quality, however, there's also an early computers-are-evil story in Little Brother, and there's The Hero, a rare novel from ubiquitous horror editor, Peter Haining novel.
Also there's a new GF Newman cover scan You Flash Bastard - it's only a scan, which I don't normally mention here, but it's such a lovely cover if you like the lack of subtlety in 1970s British style.
25 November 2002
Following correspondence with Bill Meilen, I've had a chance to update the page on his novel The Division with some more definite information about his work.
22 November 2002
Do you remember The XYY Man on TV? Well, here's a couple of novels from the series that inspired it. And here's the novel that inspired Polanski's movie The Tenant. Seemed a bit thin on the ground, so I've also added a small gallery of vintage crime covers, which may or may not be to your taste.
16 November 2002
A brace of one-offs from 1970 - Somewhere Like This and The Heart Merchants - are joined by a couple of TV spin-offs: A Fine Romance and The Chinese Detective.
12 November 2002
Stepping up the speed a bit here, here's a couple of pages rounding up four books each: there are volumes of rock & roll poetry by the likes of Jim Morrison, Nick Cave and the like, and there are a collection of 1970s novels about sex horror demon lovers, namely The Incubus, The Succubus, The Entity and The Woman Who Slept Wih Demons. The other new addition is one that I think will strike a chord amongst those of a certain age: Joyce McKinney & the Manacled Mormon. If you don't remember this case, have a look anyway - it was a bizarre, but entertaining, little incident.
8 November 2002
New additions: a brace of disaster novels by Arthur Herzog, a World War II tale in Kommando 55, a British porn classic in Playbirds and a brace of memoirs from the twilight world of the 1950s by a prostitute and a tattooist.
2 November 2002
It's another random collection then: vintage trash in the shape of Lover Comelately and Be My Victim, and movie tie-ins with Move! and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Then there's another Sherlock cash in, The Mysterious Friend of Oscar Wilde, and an early novel by Z-Cars' creator Allan Prior about British TV in the '50s: The One-Eyed Monster.
27 October 2002
Well, there's some new books, but they're not really worth writing home about, I'm afraid: Dressed To Kill and F.I.S.T. come from the movies, while Hold the Back Page and Space 1999 are from the TV. I'll scour my shelves for something of a higher quality next round.
Things have been a bit slow round these parts cos I was preparing my other site for uploading. This is now complete, so if you like British pop music from the pre-punk 70s, you may care to glance at:
