- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Granta Books (4 Feb 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1847081150
- ISBN-13: 978-1847081155
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.4 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
242,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #73 in Books > Biography > Gay & Lesbian > Gay
- #100 in Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism > Children's Literature Studies
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
`A very original debut and a very compulsive read, it had me hooked from the first page to the last' --David Peace
'A very intriguing, involving and provocative novel, structurally smart, sociologically fascinating, and written in confident, sinuous prose'
--Richard Kelly, author of Crusaders
`A brilliant first novel ... it gives a fascinating insight into fascist organisations in Britain since the 1970s'
--Socialist Review
`Max Schaefer's dives headlong into the murky world of British neo-nazism ... the delirious melding of reality and invention is striking' --Metro
'Schaefer's novel gives a fascinating insight into a dark episode of British history' --Spectator
'Children of the Sun is thought-provoking and impressively researched' --Times Literary Supplement
`A debut novel that has confidence and verve'
--List
`A gritty journey through the political and sexual subcultures of inner-city London ... Max Schaefer is undoubtedly a writer of some talent'
--Morning Star
'A very intriguing, involving and provocative novel, structurally smart, sociologically fascinating, and written in confident, sinuous prose'
--Richard Kelly, author of Crusaders
`A brilliant first novel ... it gives a fascinating insight into fascist organisations in Britain since the 1970s'
--Socialist Review
`Max Schaefer's dives headlong into the murky world of British neo-nazism ... the delirious melding of reality and invention is striking' --Metro
'Schaefer's novel gives a fascinating insight into a dark episode of British history' --Spectator
'Children of the Sun is thought-provoking and impressively researched' --Times Literary Supplement
`A debut novel that has confidence and verve'
--List
`A gritty journey through the political and sexual subcultures of inner-city London ... Max Schaefer is undoubtedly a writer of some talent'
--Morning Star
Product Description
1970: Fourteen year old Tony becomes seduced by the skinhead movement, sucked into a world of brutal racist violence and bizarre ritual. It's a milieu in which he must hide his homosexuality, in which every encounter is potentially explosively risky. 2003: James is a young TV researcher, living with his boyfriend. At a loose end, he begins to research the far right in Britain, and its secret gay membership. He becomes particularly fascinated by Nicky Crane, the leader of the movement who came out as gay before dying of AIDs in 1993. The two narrative threads of this extraordinarily assured and ambitious first novel follow Tony through the seventies, eighties and nineties, as the skinhead movement splinters and weakens, and James through a year in which he becomes dangerously immersed in his research. James starts to make contact with individuals on far right websites. He starts receiving threatening phone calls. And then the lives of these two very different heroes unforgettably intersect. "Children of the Sun" is a work of great imaginative sympathy and range - a novel of unblinking honesty but also of deep feeling, which illuminates the surprisingly thin line that separates aggression from tenderness, and that gives us a picture of a Britain that is strange and yet utterly convincing.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this on a whim and it has turned out to be one of the most interesting books I have read in a while. I have been telling all my friends about it and I just finished it as the so called 'English Defence League' starts their march for 'Englishness' in the metropolis of banality that some more rightly know as Luton. And David Cameron tells the world whilst in Germany that 'Multi culturalism' does not work, presumably like learning from history `does not work' either. Now to the book.
This is a tale of two stories, one the author investigating and researching a docu-drama he wants to write about the rise of Neo-Nazism in the 1980's and the paradox of the 'gay Nazi', which is personified in the real life persona of Nick Crane - famed for being cover boy of 'Strength Through Oi!'.
The other story is that of Tony a gay skinhead who's flirtations with the far right, BNP, British Movement, National Front and the ubiquitous Combat 18, belie the fact that he likes to 'cottage' and has a skin fetish.
The two tales intertwine and come to their inevitable if unusual climaxes (I do not use that as a pun either) leaving many questions unasked let alone unanswered. That is a point you do not get until the end and in many ways is the strength of this book in that it does not pre judge or treat the reader as some gullible liberal who has to wear its pc heart on its sleeve. In that way it reflects the experiences of the central theme of being gay in a homophobic organisation, and yet still wanting or worse needing to belong.
Max Schaefer has done pains taking research for this his debut novel and the effort has truly paid off. He has included actual articles from Newspapers of the day and Fanzines such as 'Blood and Honour', 'Skins International Fanzine' and the Music Press as bands such as 'Skrewdriver' feature fairly heavily. He also includes actual events such as the NF attack on The Hank Wangford Band (who were playing a GLC festival on the South Bank and which I was actually at so can attest to the veracity of the piece). There is obviously racist material included through out so not one for the easily offended as well as descriptions of fetishistic behaviour.
I found this an engrossing read, both visceral and arousing as well as being well written and excessively compulsive. I now have a list of friends who wish to borrow it so can not recommend highly enough. I am looking earnestly forward to Max Schaefer's next offering and only hope it's at least half as good as this.
This is a tale of two stories, one the author investigating and researching a docu-drama he wants to write about the rise of Neo-Nazism in the 1980's and the paradox of the 'gay Nazi', which is personified in the real life persona of Nick Crane - famed for being cover boy of 'Strength Through Oi!'.
The other story is that of Tony a gay skinhead who's flirtations with the far right, BNP, British Movement, National Front and the ubiquitous Combat 18, belie the fact that he likes to 'cottage' and has a skin fetish.
The two tales intertwine and come to their inevitable if unusual climaxes (I do not use that as a pun either) leaving many questions unasked let alone unanswered. That is a point you do not get until the end and in many ways is the strength of this book in that it does not pre judge or treat the reader as some gullible liberal who has to wear its pc heart on its sleeve. In that way it reflects the experiences of the central theme of being gay in a homophobic organisation, and yet still wanting or worse needing to belong.
Max Schaefer has done pains taking research for this his debut novel and the effort has truly paid off. He has included actual articles from Newspapers of the day and Fanzines such as 'Blood and Honour', 'Skins International Fanzine' and the Music Press as bands such as 'Skrewdriver' feature fairly heavily. He also includes actual events such as the NF attack on The Hank Wangford Band (who were playing a GLC festival on the South Bank and which I was actually at so can attest to the veracity of the piece). There is obviously racist material included through out so not one for the easily offended as well as descriptions of fetishistic behaviour.
I found this an engrossing read, both visceral and arousing as well as being well written and excessively compulsive. I now have a list of friends who wish to borrow it so can not recommend highly enough. I am looking earnestly forward to Max Schaefer's next offering and only hope it's at least half as good as this.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I am always attracted to things marginal and you don't get much more niche than homosexuality and the Far Right in nineteen eighties British politics. I won't say too much, only that the theme(s)is/are developed in a highly original, skilful and readable manner. The best new novel I have read in ages.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Not necessarily an easy read , some times confusing , the narrative jumps and because there are so many characters I was sometimes confused , but also enchanted too . Knowing very little of the national front / skin head movement nor understanding the fetishising of the skin head look , I found this an amazing story . Politics , betrayal , obsession , kink , secrets . maybe I should reread to really understand all of the layers and then I could give this 5 stars .
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Children of the Dark
This debut novel promises to address that oft noted but rarely explored nexus between the subcultures of neo-Nazism and homosexuality. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Robert Cordner
Gripping read and so well researched
A really well researched, thoughtful and well paced book, combining the recent past with a look at a previously under mentioned history of the right wing. Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2010 by C. G. Exton
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