Yes, We Have No. Adventures in Other England by
Nik Cohn
pbk out March 99
(Secker Warburg)
at £10
Somewhere between middle and working class suburbia and the
lumpen proletariat there is, according to Nik Cohn, a republic, an
independent state peopled by all those who live in England but who are
not defined by Englishness. People who would probably defy any kind of
definition other than the fact that they are definitely not part of
the Anglo-Club.
I'll take his word for it but in travelling this new world Cohn
succeeds in giving voice to its denizens and making them real and
vital. From a cast of thousands there's Laurence, the Kings Cross
philosopher, Fisto the graffiti artist, Johnny Edgecombe, the person
who fired six shots into Christine Keeler's door and changed
everything (he "..gave the Anglo-Club a whack from which it never
recovered". Cohn should have subtitled his book "1966 And All that"),
Sapphire the transvestite from Bristol ("Buttocks wouldn't melt in his
mouth"), Mr May and Maggie Calderbank from a lost Liverpool and still
hanging on amidst social collapse and George, one of the last of the
New Age Travellers (thus answering the question "What ever happened to
them": they're living in a field in Cornwall).
Cohn hangs all this together on a Gonzo narrative which sometimes
loses its way (he describes a Junk moored in Bristol as being "from
an opium dream" for example) but also captures some of the magic of
John Brenhnt's "Midnight In The Garden Of Good and Evil" in the way it
peels back layers and gives us a new look at a society. Cohn has a
good eye for the lost communities and devastating changes that have
happened in the
country over the last 20 years.
Often sad but never boring, this may not be a crime book (although
many "criminals" feature in it). It may, therefore, be out of place
here but it is well written - even with its faults - and well worth
your time.
Yes, We Have No. Adventures in Other England by
Nik Cohn