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The Crust on Its Uppers (Five Star) (Paperback)

by Derek Raymond (Author) "I MUST warn you that everything that follows emanates from the following figure: sacked from the most super public school in the country at the..." (more)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Serpent's Tail; New Ed edition (12 Oct 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1852427353
  • ISBN-13: 978-1852427351
  • Product Dimensions: 18.4 x 13 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 315,079 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'Tremendous black comedy of Chelsea gangland, written and set in the early Sixties, on the cusp of swinging London' --The Face

'A breathlessly good read, as funny, relevant and resonant at it was thirty years ago' --Literary Review

'Peopled by a fast-talking shower of queens, spades, morries, slags, shysters, grifters and grafters of every description, it is one of the great London novels' --New Statesman


Product Description

'It's a tale of someone who wanted to go and go-who was sick of the dead-on-its-feet upper crust he was born into, that he didn't believe in, didn't want, whose values were meaningless, that did nothing but hold him back from his first nanny onwards. I wanted to chip my way out of that background which held me like a flea in a block of ice, and crime was the only chisel I could find.' First published in 1962, The Crust on Its Uppers, Derek Raymond's first novel (written when he was Robin Cook) is a gripping tale of class betrayal. With ruthless precision, it brings vividly to life a Britain of spivs, crooked toffs and bent coppers - in fact, a Britain that in its bare essentials has changed little over the last 30 years.
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I MUST warn you that everything that follows emanates from the following figure: sacked from the most super public school in the country at the age of sixteen. Read the first page
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63% buy the item featured on this page:
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A gripping but well written novel, 4 Jul 2000
By G. H. Fraser-sampson (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Derek Raymond is an overlooked genius, perhaps because most of his books dwell on the seamy side of life and were probably too "not nice" for the reading tastes of the sixties and seventies.

The Crust on Its Uppers is not his best work (for that I would recommend the Factory series of novels (most of which appear to be out of print, but can be found on bibliofind) which feature a cynical detective working in the Department of Unexplained Deaths).

However, this book is still much finer than most things you will pick off the shelf of a bookstore today. The central characters are public school boys ("morries") who feel the world owes them a living because their background makes them superior to those around them. In fact, they are nasty, shallow characters who progress from bent gambling, through fraud to international crime. Their arrogance and misplaced snobbery make them even more unlikeable, which is exactly Raymond's style.

The characters who flit in and out of the pages of this book are well observed (almost certainly from the life in London pubs) and credible members of the criminal demi-monde.

Raymond is a serious literary novelist who happens to set his novels against crime backgrounds. He should be held up as an example of the writer's craft to any modern author.

You will enjoy this book and remember it long after you read it.

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