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Common People
 
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Common People (Paperback)

by Martin Knight (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
RRP: £6.99
Price: £5.63 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £1.36 (19%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
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Customers buy this book with Skinheads by John King

Common People + Skinheads
Price For Both: £10.62

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  • This item: Common People by Martin Knight

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Skinheads by John King

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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Mainstream Publishing (12 Oct 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1840183322
  • ISBN-13: 978-1840183320
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 236,700 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

John Hay is one of the Common People. Growing up on the Common council estate in a London suburb in the 1960s and 1970s is at first idyllic. The Beatles, "Blue Peter" and "The Beano" fill the senses and soccer, scrumping and splits provide the pastimes. But encounters with the police, paedophiles, pretty girls and bullies soon bring down the curtain on childhood innocence. With his friends from the estate, John passes through comprehensive school and out into the world of work. Experiences with drink, drugs, petty crime and hooliganism quickly follow, and the boys enter a lifestyle of sustained nihilism.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Common People
63% buy the item featured on this page:
Common People 4.4 out of 5 stars (9)
£5.63
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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Blistering piece of literature, 26 April 2001
By A Customer
Read this novel on a friend's advice and am now passing that advice on. A simple book that manages to cover a range of issues and points that more famous writers have tried very hard but with less impact to achieve. In some ways not much happens but on the other hand it does. It's all here: racism, crime, drugs, murder, first love, childhood but all in a highly authentic and entertaing way. But its the characters that make it. The suburban pyscopath, the easily led junkie, the entrepreneur, the bully, the bullied, the flash schoolmaster. We all know them. Read it and you'll see. An exceptional book by an ordinary bloke.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Common Coming of Age, 21 Aug 2002
By A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
South London in the 1960s and 70s is brought to life in this vivid coming of novel that is reads like an autobiography. John Hay narrates the first forty years of his life, starting with childhood on a council estate in the suburbs, moving through the traumatic and formative teenage school years, and then into early adulthood. The novel isn't really plotted in any way, rather it straightforwardly describes growing up as a working class boy, from running wild at school, to running wild in the streets. The thrill of being part of the Chelsea mob, the emergence of the skinhead subculture, police harrasment, experiments in drugs, fights, girls, etc.-it's all here. By the end, John has grown up and become a normal adult, at least until the final page, where there's a final twist lurks. If you like writers like John King, Irvine Welsh, and Howard Baker, you'll probably dig this.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning realistic reading about a working class childhood., 18 Jan 2003
Superb read which really brings back childhood memories.The comparisons to early experiences is astounding right down to the scruffy kids at school to the "Zoom" lollies.The book captures pefectly the paths we take as youths to adulthood often loosing friendships along the way.Drug and alcohol use appear frequently in this novel but at the right time which gives it a realistic but honest and in no way glamorous account of growing up in a modern working class society.Its all here, the first fumble up a girls skirt, the dreams of youth and the final evaluation that things don't always turn out as you would expect, mix this up with a jaw dropping ending and you have the makings of a modern day classic.
I read this book in one day cover to cover something I have never done before.Buy this book !
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable read
This book was very enjoyable. I related to it from hearing stories from my Nan, Mum, Aunts and Uncles stories from growing up in Battersea around that time. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Ms. T. L. David

5.0 out of 5 stars Desert Island Books
If l was ever deserted on an Island, this would be one of the books l took with me.
Funny Yes
Sad Yes
Real Yes
Easy to read undoubtedly
Well... Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2007 by Robert P. Splaine

3.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgia trip
This book made me laugh, not so much the anecdotes of the author but they sparked so many memories from my own 'wasted youth'. Read more
Published on 26 Jan 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging tale of growing up
I am finding this book a realistic tale of growing up in a working class environment. From the spitting on teachers, to working in a dead end job questioning authority. Read more
Published on 17 Jan 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and thought provoking biographical novel
A rich rite of passage narrative centred around a group of boys growing up in South London in the 1960s and 1970s. Read more
Published on 7 Dec 2000

4.0 out of 5 stars Believable tale of modern working-class life
John Hay is raised on a South London council estate in the 1960s and 1970s. Common People recounts the early idyllic years when the boys roamed around and played together... Read more
Published on 4 Nov 2000 by steveholmes@hotmail.com

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