In the mid-1950s, Britain was gripped by the sudden terror of its own youth. As if from nowhere, gangs of young men, dressed in a remarkable new fashion, emerged to turn the streets, dance halls and fairgrounds into battlefields. The Teddy Boys had arrived. Soon they were blamed for a rising tide of post-War crime. Then the arrival of rock 'n' roll sparked rioting and further condemnation. Yet others saw the Teds as a positive sign of an independent generation, and similar fads were embraced in other countries. Their legacy survives today.

'Enormously enjoyable' Sunday Times 'Genial and entertaining' Daily Telegraph 'A joyous celebration of the founding fathers of British youth culture' Alwyn Turner, author of All in it Together and Little Englanders With their draped suits, suede creepers and immaculately greased hair, the Teddy Boys defined a new era for a generation of teenagers raised on a diet of drab clothes, Blitz playgrounds and tinned dinners. From the Edwardian origins of their fashion to the tabloid fears of delinquency, drunkenness and disorder, the story of the Teds throws a fascinating light on a British society that was still reeling from the Second World War. In the 1950s, working-class teenagers found a way of asserting themselves in how they dressed, spoke and socialised on the street. When people saw Teds, they stepped aside. Musician and author Max Décharné traces the rise of the Teds and the shockwave they sent through post-war Britain, from the rise of rock 'n' roll to the Notting Hill race riots. Full of fascinating insight, deftly sketching the milieu of Elvis Presley and Derek Bentley, Billy Fury and Oswald Mosley, Teddy Boys is the story of Britain's first youth counterculture.

From the Teddy Boys of the post-war decade to the heroin chic of “Cool Britannia,” the many subcultures of Britain's teenagers have often been at the forefront of social change. Youth Culture and the Post-War British Novel is the first book to chart that history through the work of some of the most influential contemporary British writers. In this vivid work of cultural history, Stephen Ross explores: · The manic teenage vision of Absolute Beginners · The Angry Young Men of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning · Skinheads and Burgess's A Clockwork Orange · Irony and authenticity in the 1980s – from Amis to Kureishi · Heroin chic, disaffection and Trainspotting Examining the cultural contexts of some of the most important and popular post-1945 British novels, the book covers such themes as crises of masculinity, multiculturalism and inter-generational conflict, and in doing so casts new light on British writing today.

In the desert town of Richland, Washington, there stands a giant sycamore tree. Horribly mutated by nuclear waste, it feeds on the life energy of boys that it snags with its living roots. And when Teddy Matthews moves to town, the tree trains its sights on its next victim. From the start, Teddy knows something is very wrong with Richland-every kid he meets disappears before his eyes. A trip to the cemetery confirms that these boys are actually dead and trying to lure him to the tree. But that knowledge is no help when Teddy is swept into the tree's world, a dark version of Richland from which there is no escape . . .

Following his progress from ice-cream salesman to gambler, agent, record producer and traveller, the irrepressible Mim Scala takes us on a helter-skelter journey through Swinging London and its afterlife on the hippie trail. A must read for the arm chair traveller

The explosive story of the Sex Pistols is now so familiar that the essence of what they represented has been lost in a fog of nostalgia and rock ’n’ roll cliché. In 1976 the rise of the Sex Pistols was regarded in apocalyptic terms, and the punks as visitors from an unwanted future bringing chaos and confusion. In this book, John Scanlan considers the Sex Pistols as the first successful art project of their manager, Malcolm McLaren, a vision born out of radical politics, boredom, and his deep and unrelenting talent for perverse opportunism. As Scanlan shows, McLaren deliberately set a collision course with establishments, both conservative and counter-cultural, and succeeded beyond his highest expectations. Scanlan tells the story of how McLaren’s project—designed, in any case, to fail—foundered on the development of the Pistols into a great rock band and the inconvenient artistic emergence of John Lydon. Moving between London and New York, and with a fascinating cast of delinquents, petty criminals, and misfits, Sex Pistols: Poison in the Machine is not just a book about a band, it is about the times, the ideas, the coincidences, and the characters that made punk; that ended with the Sex Pistols—beaten, bloody, and overdosed—sensationally self-destructing on stage in San Francisco in January 1978; and that transformed popular culture throughout the world.

No youth cult has been so enduring, yet so misunderstood, as the Teddy Boys. From the moment they appeared in the early 1950s, inspired by the flamboyance of Edwardian clothing and the hot sounds of dance bands to seek escape from the austerity of the era, the Teds were maligned by a starchy British Establishment that had no idea what they were really about. As the movement swept the country, that scorn turned to fear, sparking moral outrage that lasted for a decade. Teddy Boys traces the roots of the Teds among the post-War spivs, the music of jive and boogie artists, and dances like ‘the creep’. The new fashion and its link with violence began to attract media attention after a fatal gang fight in south London, and soon Teddy Boy clothes, haircuts and dance styles were banned from concert halls around the country, to no avail. The arrival of rock ‘n’ roll and the hit movie Rock Around the Clock saw the craze reach its frenetic peak. This lively history tells how the Teds fell into decline after the Notting Hill Riots of 1958, but how their spirit was preserved by the leather-clad Rockers who fought with Mods in the 1960s. A landmark concert at Wembley in 1972, with artists like Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry, revived the fashion, and the rising popularity of rockabilly expanded interest across Europe and beyond. The scene is now thriving again, with numerous reunions, gigs and events worldwide. Teddy Boys is the first ever account of an enduring popular phenomenon.