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Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire: A Confidential Report [Hardcover]

Iain Sinclair (Author)

3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 26 Feb 2009

Once an Arcadian suburb of grand houses, orchards and conservatories, Hackney declined into a zone of asylums, hospitals and dirty industry. Persistently revived, reinvented, betrayed, it has become a symbol of inner-city chaos, crime and poverty. Now, the Olympics, a final attempt to clamp down on a renegade spirit, seeks to complete the process: erasure disguised as 'progress'.

In this 'documentary fiction', Sinclair meets a cast of the dispossessed, including writers, photographers, bomb-makers and market traders. Legends of tunnels, Hollow Earth theories and the notorious Mole Man are unearthed. He uncovers traces of those who passed through Hackney: Lenin and Stalin, novelists Joseph Conrad and Samuel Richardson, film-makers Orson Welles and Jean-Luc Godard, Tony Blair beginning his political career, even a Baader-Meinhof urban guerrilla on the run. And he tells his own story: of forty years in one house in Hackney, of marriage, children, strange encounters, deaths.

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Product details

Hardcover: 592 pages
Publisher: Hamish Hamilton; Third Impression edition (26 Feb 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0241142164
ISBN-13: 978-0241142165
Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.5 x 5.6 cm

Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 129,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'An explosion of literary fireworks' -- Peter Ackroyd, The Times

'Few books become causes celebres before they are published. But Sinclair's is one' -- Guardian

'On his territory there's nobody to touch him' -- Sunday Times

'Sinclair at his best . . . One of the finest books about London in recent decades' -- Sukhdev Sandhu, Daily Telegraph

Review

'An explosion of literary fireworks'

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars

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43 of 49 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Thirty years as a colonist 2 Aug 2010

By Earthshaker

Format:Paperback

There was a time, around the end of the 1980s and start of the 1990s, when I would have said you couldn't have too much Iain Sinclair. This book, however, I read with teeth-grinding annoyance pretty much throughout; and fundamentally, I think, it's evidence of a talent being led astray by productivity and journalism.

Make no mistake about it, Sinclair can (still) write. As a shaper of phrases and chronicler of the low level crackle and static of the urban street, the white noise of minor threat and aggro that lies behind even the quietest moment, he has few equals. My problem with this book is that, essentially, it's not about Hackney at all, but about the uses to which Hackney and what it stands for can be put by a bunch of middle-class Bohemian incomers. Sinclair chiefly chronicles his thirty years living in Hackney firstly through interviewing people from his own artistic milieu who, like him, moved into the cheap housing here and pursued their own alternative lifestyles, or secondly through pursuing the stories of lost novelists who have similarly used Hackney as set-dressing. Will Self, Marina Warner, Chris Petit: the gang's all here. What we have much less of are the natives; notably, Sinclair seems to speak to one black person in the course of the book, and he's another creative type who's used as a conduit to tell us what all the other black people in the borough, the ones without a novel or mural on the go, are thinking.

The Bohemian viewpoint is an Olympian one: from this standpoint, all government either local or national is the work of charlatans or buffoons. We have the obligatory anti-Tony Blair stuff; we also have positively Clarkson-esque opposition to local council initiatives to foster cycling or recycling.... Pretty much every administrative body gets it in the neck apart from the defunct Inner London Education Authority (who, it can't be coincidence, used to employ Sinclair's wife). We learn of Sinclair's reluctance to pay his council tax; later, encountering an arts project funded by Hackney Borough Council he comments that he'd have been happier to pay up if he'd known they were spending the money on this, instead of fobbing him off with nonsense about schools and waste disposal. Clearly that's meant to be a joke, but there's a truth behind it. Of course there's corruption and incompetence in Hackney Council - a long, sorry history of it - but this is at least a body grappling with some of the problems of the area, with real poverty leading to real suffering for real people, whilst the Bohemian fl�neur passes by with an ironically raised eyebrow.

Returning to my point about productivity and journalism - as in a lot of recent Sinclair work, we get too much of the man himself, detailing how he went about getting the book written: he and his family muscling into the foreground and crowding out the urban landscape that was his forte. Writing about the process of writing is a classic journalistic space-filler; we even get a bit about his computer problems (next and final stop for the desperate journalist filling column inches anyhow, the column on erecting flat-pack furniture). We learn of his being commissioned to write the book and, as it progresses, we hear more and more about the deadline approaching and how certain alleyways will have to remain unexplored if he's to deliver it on time. There's a palpable air of "Will this do?" as we reach the ending. Ultimately, it's a bit of a lazy book: lazily assembled, and a chronicle of a lazy refusal to engage with Hackney as it actually is rather than simply using it and its natives as a gritty backdrop for his own purposes.

This sounds like a two-star or even one-star rubbishing. And yet he can still write, even if he chooses to spread it thinly across too much product at the moment. Three stars, then, because the sentences are still well put together, even if their content may drive you spare. Read more ›

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars For fans only? 9 Feb 2011

By G. J. Marsh

Format:Hardcover

Readers expecting a straightforward chronological narrative on the history of Hackney will very disappointed with this book, not to mention thouroghly confused. This is a very personal book about the authors four decade long residency in the "odd fish" that is Hackney, and is more autobiography than anything else. All the usual Sinclair hallmarks are here, the walks, the literary treasure hunts, the seemingly endless parade of bueraucrats, developers and slimy corporates flamed on his poetic barbeque.

So perhaps a little too much filler and lack of focus for a book on such a relatively small area, but Sinclair still knows how to turn the dullest of anecdotes on its head with his exhilarating flair for prose. Enough to keep the fans happy, but one to be filed under "Memoir" rather than "History".

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111 of 145 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed 10 Feb 2009

By J. MCALLISTER

Format:Hardcover

I was born in Hackney and lived in and around it for many years apparently, I discover, as a close neighbour of Mr Sinclair for a time, so this book was a must read for me. Sadly I have to say that I found it disappointing on a number of levels. The first aspect that troubles me is one that is endemic to his writings as a whole which rely on interviews and conversations ,that is the constant inclusion of his small coterie of friends to supply material. Chris Petit and now his son are referenced here as is Stewart Home. Less well known subjects in this book are generally other middle class "artists" who have washed up in the borough, the great unwashed have no voice here. The mass of Hackney residents are represented as winos, hoodies , beggars and chancers. The Holly estate for instance is discussed at length by people who live close to it but not those live on or in it, giving the impression that the place is something of a war zone but no sense of what it is like to live there.
The Four Aces a Legendary reggae and Ska venue has its history dismissed in a sentence while a brief period when their premises became part of the rave scene rates half a chapter, because he encounters someone who went there once. Other venues like Phebes and The All Nations are ignored totally. For me the significance of these places to black culture over a long period is is a more significant topic. But the nice white middle class residents that Mr Sinclair occupies himself with would know nothing about that and those who might are not in evidence.... Read more ›

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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Old-Fashioned to Want a Book About Hackney to be About Hackney? 23 Feb 2012

By Junkets

Format:Paperback

The clue is in the sub-title they say: "A Confidential Report". I've considered this. Have I been too hasty? Missed something? Is the quality of this book hidden? No: "confidential" shouldn't mean "dull"; secret things are meant to be interesting.

It's taken me a very long time to get through Sinclair's Hackney. I picked up a first edition back in 2009, never having read anything by Iain Sinclair before. I'd recently gotten through the far-superior On Brick Lane by Rachel Litchenstein, who'd collaborated with Sinclair not long before. On Brick Lane demonstrated Litchenstein's obvious respect for Sinclair - a sympathetic interview comprises part of the book. I'd also gotten quite heavily into London non-fiction, where everywhere Sinclair is spoken of with awe and reverence.

And then I tried to read it. After a few hundred pages I felt the need to turn to another book for respite. A series of respites followed. Jump forward to 2012. I could bare the sight of the unfinished hardback staring at me from the shelf no-longer: I set to put Sinclair's Hackney to rest.

The constant name-dropping infuriated me. If a name is dropped in a book I perceive it to be because the writer thinks I should know who the person is. When I don't (and 80% of the time in this book I don't) a little part of me blushes. So I go away and look the person up, only to find - in the case of Sinclair's Hackney - that I don't want to know who they are anyway.

I could be wrong. Perhaps Sinclair doesn't presume the reader to already know who the person is, perhaps he wants them to go away and find out. Still: time after time the discovery isn't worth the effort. Perhaps Sinclair is content for the reader to only know the characters as they appear within his pages.... If that is the case, then I am left with very little impression of who people like Chris Petit actually are - in fact, I'm not really left with any kind of impression of them at all.

There's too much of Sinclair in this book. People will say I've missed the point - that writing about a place can only truly be done by acknowledging your relationship to it. Somewhere along the way this turned into "psycho-geography": something that has always felt like pseudo-historical mystical-indulgence to me. Hackney here is just a setting for Sinclair to talk about himself - and consequently the reader gets a very narrow view of it. A fantastic idea to have chapters named after places, but the content of those chapters is often entirely unrelated to them - and indeed, even Hackney itself. The book is missing a structure, and musing about the fact that it's missing a structure doesn't give it one.

There is a lot of criticism that this book neglects black history and the modern day working class of Hackney. It does. It neglects the underclass too. A "confidential report" would get behind all of this. I read a review that states Sinclair's treatment of ethnic minorities in the book borders on racist. It doesn't. It doesn't look great that the few black characters in the book to be explored in any detail tend to be extremely negative, whilst the rest are left to loom unexplored on the periphery, but if Sinclair is guilty of anything it's laziness: he's worked hard writing a book that's within his comfort zone; within the limited scope of the Hackney he knows.

Where Sinclair's Hackney does come alive is the interviews. If I recommended it to anyone (I don't regret reading it but I wouldn't recommend it) I'd say: "Just read the italics". The problem of quite a narrow cast of interviewees is still there though. The Chris Petit interview beginning on page 387 illustrates this perfectly: the pages could have been taken up by someone with something relevant to say. He's there because of Sinclair; not because of Hackney. He doesn't even really talk about Hackney.

Had Sinclair focused more heavily on interviews, devised an actual structure to his book (the place-name foundations were there - again, see Rachel Litchenstein), interviewed an eclectic range of people that truly represented the diversity of Hackney and disciplined his introspective doodling, he could well have written a landmark work on Hackney.

Positive reviews on this site seem to criticise negative reviews for having been written by failed authors. If this is the case, I can only imagine it is because when a failed author reads Sinclair's Hackney, they get to the end of it thinking: "I can't get published but he gets away with that?!"

Maybe I'm old-fashioned in wanting a book about Hackney to be about Hackney.

(A quick note on another reviewer's criticism of Sinclair's references to the Krays: The reviewer felt that "the ill-fated twins registered zero in most people's concerns" and "John Pearson [...] had already written everything that needed to be said about the Krays anyway."

The reviewer lived in Hackney through the 60's and no-doubt was correct in stating that the Krays didn't worry most people. However, Sinclair's interview with Tony Lambrianou is one of the bits of the book that will stay with me. Not because I'm scintillated by the idea of "gangsters", but because the man came across as a very normal unromantic nothing-special kind of person: a human being - average - from Hackney - and a creature of his time. The image of him and his friends killing rats by the canal will stay with me: it feels like a true snapshot of a tiny part of Hackney from the past: I was left with the impression that there were many more like him.) Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good book.

I really like this book. Very informative. Iain Sinclair has a very distinct style of writing. I enjoyed the way he wrote abou the ins and outs of Hackney.

Published 1 month ago by Denise Ward

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for Iain Sinclair fans

Anyone who loves London but is unwilling to tramp the streets as thoroughly as Mr Sinclair must get a copy of this.

Published 5 months ago by C. A. Russell

5.0 out of 5 stars a confidential report

Read the subtitle folks, this is not meant to be a conventional history of Hackney - rather the reverse, a confidential secret history, and yes a memoir (there's more of his... Read more

Published 17 months ago by nickslider

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't open this book if you want to read a cozy biography of Hackney

Don't open this book if you want to read a cozy biography of Hackney.

Its not a Time Out Guide, nor a Pevsner nor a scholarly history of the area. Read more

Published on 1 Jun 2011 by Neil Ford

2.0 out of 5 stars requires patience

"Stylish" writing, but ultimately a self-indulgent and drawn out affair. This is overblown and tiresome, and nearly 600 pages of it is a lot of showing off to trawl through. Read more

Published on 16 Feb 2011 by yakob

3.0 out of 5 stars Parallels but little crossover

A good friend brought me this book back from London....he knew I was born and bread in Hackney. I approached it with a sense of excitment that often occurs when we feel we may... Read more

Published on 4 Jan 2011 by Stevenqoz

5.0 out of 5 stars Bad Reviews are just failed writers twittering away

This book is wonderful. His wrtiting is fresh and well paced. His sentences are enjoyable and full of warmth. The depiction of Hackney is perfect. Read more

Published on 30 Nov 2010 by Wilbur

5.0 out of 5 stars The elusive Mr. Sinclair

Another neo-platonist excursion into urban streets, the search for the noumenal London, glimpses of "reality", beyond human ability to fully grasp. Read more

Published on 9 April 2010 by Donald Lush

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as parochial as one would think

I embarked upon this book with some trepidation. I'm a Sinclair fan and feel he has been overlooked by prize givers, partly because of the thorniness of his meticulously crafted... Read more

Published on 3 April 2009 by R. A. Langham

1.0 out of 5 stars A self indulgent dirge

I bought this book as I grew up in Hackney and have always had a strong affinity with the area. It appears that Sinclair has simply used the name of the place as means of selling... Read more

Published on 29 Mar 2009 by T. Row

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