John King - Headhunters (01-094)

[gerbie]

Welcome to the life of the lads. Carter, Balti, Will, Harry and Mango. Five young men in working class London. Their lives are easy. They work, they drink together and chase women. They even have a scoring system, their own sex division. Depending on how far you can get away with with a woman, they score points for it. It's a system of honour; the others have to believe you on your word. Carter, nicknamed after the band Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, obviously is the runaway leader of their division. Mango, the only one with a good job pays a few times for the deed, but ignores that he had to cough up to get some points. Will falls in love and gets all serious, therefore isn't part of the league anymore. In the meantime Balti loses his job.

A good book on the life in Britain, certainly recognisable for plenty of Brits I'm sure. The stories of the five are intermingled, which guarantees a good read. After his debut novel, "The football factory", one of the classics on British hooliganism, King proves that he knows how to write a good book.

Comments

Yep Headhunters is good

[harryroberts.livejournal.com]

Agree Headhunters is good (cant remembe half of it to tell you the truth) also liked "England Away" by John King. You ever read any books by the Brimson brothers?? First started reading football hooliganism books by Dougie & Eddy Brimson but most of it is repeated crap (only in my opinion). You've seen one fight you've seen them all really with a few of these books. I was suprised to find humour mixed in with football violence but its there, you've just got to look deep. Eddy Brimson wrote a book called "Tear gas and ticket touts" with the England fans during France 98, some funny/scary stories.

Re: Yep Headhunters is good

[gerbie.livejournal.com]

I have read quite a few hooliganism books by now. The Brimson bros. not yet though. Read the Crew (impressed!) by Dougie though, not the ones they wrote together. I had them in my hands, but the few times I'm in the UK, I can only limit myself to a few titles. England away will be the next one I read by King, Football factory was impressive. I'm sure you'll like it as well.