Page Updated: 25/02/99
Kevin Sampson
awaydays.jpg
AwaydaysAwaydays Newpbk 01 Mar 99
About the Author
Bibliography


New Paperback - Vintage (1999)
Awaydays
Like The Catcher in the Rye with Stanley knives…
'The dark side of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch' NME
'Kevin Sampson's excellent debut novel… set around Liverpool, is funny, hip… Sampson is a fine storyteller… He has a fantastic ear for the Liverpudlian accent… Nasty stuff, brilliantly told' Guardian
'An acutely observed rite-of-passage story about a teenage hooligan who follows Tranmere Rovers in the heady days of 1979...the Pack rampage at away matches, beating up rival fans, slashing faces with Stanley knives and looting local shops...brilliant at evoking the period when the casual movement was just gaining momentum on the terraces...Sampson looks closely at what motivates their dysfunctional behaviour, it comes as a relief to read a rounded evocation of a time and a generation which has too often been reduced to clichés' Independent on Sunday
'Sampson bestows excellent setting, context and rite-of-passage humanity...a close-of-the-Seventies snapshot of the life of Carty...underpinned by Sampson's intuitive understanding of teenage lads' need to belong… And it's funny' The Face
'Awaydays is cheeky, entertaining, and in parts dangerous' Loaded
'The narrator is a bright, middle-class chap who works for the Inland Revenue. This allows Sampson to question the received notion of hooliganism as a working-class pursuit… Sampson is not afraid to examine the thuggishness he portrays… Although its hero is darkly amoral, this ugly and fascinating novel is not, in the end, pessimistic' Daily Telegraph
'A gritty novel...with wit and humour at every turn' Maxim
top
About The Author
Kevin Sampson was born in Liverpool and brought up in Birkenhead. He has written for The Face , I-D , the Observer , NME , Loaded , Arena and was a contributing editor to the influential terrace fanzine The End . He is currently working on his second novel.

top

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

  • Awaydays (Jonathan Cape, 1998) New Vintage Pbk Mar 99

    • top
    [../twebref.htm]