John King (author)
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John King (born 1960) is an English writer best known for his novels which mostly deal in the more rebellious elements driving the country's culture. His stories carry strong social and political undercurrents, and his work has been widely translated abroad. He has written articles and reviews for alternative and mainstream publications, edits the fiction journal ''Verbal'', and is the co-owner of the London Books publishing house.


Career


Novels

King's 1996 debut novel, '' The Football Factory'', was an instant word-of-mouth success, selling around 300,000 copies in the UK. The book was subsequently turned into a play by Brighton Theatre Events, with German and Dutch adaptations following. A
film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...
appeared in 2004. Directed by
Nick Love Nick Love (born 24 December 1969) is an English film director and writer. His credits include the films '' The Football Factory'', '' The Business'', '' Goodbye Charlie Bright'', ''Outlaw'', '' The Sweeney'', a 2009 remake of football hooligan ...
and starring
Danny Dyer Danial John Dyer (born 24 July 1977) is an English actor and presenter. Dyer's breakthrough role was as Moff in ''Human Traffic'' (1999), with other notable roles Billy the Limpet in ''Mean Machine (film), Mean Machine'' (2001) and as Tommy J ...
,
Dudley Sutton Dudley Sutton (6 April 1933 – 15 September 2018) was an English actor. Active in radio, stage, film and television, he was best known for his role of Tinker Dill in the BBC Television comedy/drama series ''Lovejoy''. Early life Sutton was b ...
, and
Frank Harper Frank Harper is an English actor and film producer. He is best known for his "hard man" roles, such as Billy Bright in ''The Football Factory (film), The Football Factory'' (2004) and Dog in ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' (1998). Care ...
, its UK DVD sales passed the two-million mark. Prior to the novel's release, an early version of the chapter "Millwall Away" appeared in '' Rebel Inc.'' This magazine also published early writing by
Irvine Welsh Irvine Welsh (born 27 September 1958) is a Scottish novelist and short story writer. His 1993 novel ''Trainspotting (novel), Trainspotting'' was made into a Trainspotting (film), film of the same name. He has also written plays and screenplays, ...
and Alan Warner, and all three would subsequently join the
Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a British publishing firm headquartered in London and founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard (1893–1968) set up the publishing house in ...
publishing house. King was producing the fanzine ''Two Sevens'', and ''Rebel Inc'' editor Kevin Williamson's fiction was featured, along with interviews with Welsh and the novelist
Stewart Home Kevin Llewellyn Callan (born 24 March 1962), better known as Stewart Home, is an English artist, filmmaker, writer, pamphleteer, art historian, and activist. His novels include the non-narrative '' 69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess'' (2002 ...
. Following its publication, extracts from ''The Football Factory'' featured in issue 59 of the New York literary journal ''Grand Street''. Two more novels —'' Headhunters'' and ''England Away''—develop the themes of alienation and belonging found in ''The Football Factory'', and the three books form a loose trilogy. Street newspaper ''
The Big Issue ''The Big Issue'' is a United Kingdom–based street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. ''The Big Issue'' is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer ho ...
'' described ''Headhunters'' as: "Sexy, dirty, violent, sad and funny; in fact, it has just about everything you could want from a book on contemporary working-class life in London". King's fourth novel, ''
Human Punk ''Human Punk'' is a novel by John King that tells the story of a group of boys who leave school in 1977, and the effect the emerging punk movement has on their lives. The book is largely based in Slough, a new town on the outskirts of London, ...
'' (2000), draws on the emergence and evolution of punk rock as it tells the story of four boyhood friends; it is set in and around the town of
Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...
. ''
White Trash White trash is a derogatory term in American English for poor white people, especially in the rural areas of the southern United States. The label signifies a social class within the white population, especially those perceived to have a ...
'' (2002), which the author has described as "a defence of the NHS", drew the following praise from
Alan Sillitoe Alan Sillitoe FRSL (4 March 192825 April 2010) was an English writer and one of the so-called " angry young men" of the 1950s. He disliked the label, as did most of the other writers to whom it was applied. He is best known for his debut novel ...
, author of ''
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning ''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'' is the first novel by British author Alan Sillitoe and won the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award. It was adapted by Sillitoe into the 1960 film of the same name starring Albert Finney, directed by ...
'': "Complete and unique, all stitched up and marvellous, the two sides of the equation brought together, realistic yet philosophical". In ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'', Mat Coward wrote: "The cumulative effect of King's style, with streams of monologue, alternating between Ruby and Jeffreys, is astonishingly powerful in its detail and depth... This is an immensely timely and necessary book: stylish, witty and passionate. It's about time someone slapped the smugness from the face of broadsheet Britain". The one novel of King's to be set entirely outside England, '' The Prison House'' (2004), takes place in an old castle prison in an unnamed country. Brian Keenan wrote: "With a brutal imagination ''The Prison House'' takes you to a place where angels fear to tread. Go there and be redeemed". Boyd Tonkin, writing in ''The Independent'', said: "In this literary jail, the ghost of Kafka shares a cell with the shade of Burroughs". ''
Skinheads A skinhead or skin is a member of a subculture that originated among working-class youth in London, England, in the 1960s. It soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working-class skinhead movement emerging worldwide i ...
'' (2008) is set in the same landscapes as ''Human Punk'' and ''White Trash'', and while the three books feature different characters, they effectively combine to provide an overview of forty years of British culture and politics as ''The Satellite Cycle''. In his review of the novel,
Charles Shaar Murray Charles Shaar Murray (born Charles Maximillian Murray; 27 June 1951) is an English Music journalism, music journalist and broadcaster. He has worked on the ''NME, New Musical Express'' (''NME'') and many other magazines and newspapers, and has ...
stated: "John King's achievement since his debut has been enormous: creating a modern, proletarian English literature at once genuinely modern, genuinely proletarian, genuinely literature". The US edition of ''Human Punk'' carries the following quote by Lars Frederiksen of the American punk band Rancid: "John King: the face in our subculture who lives what he writes". '' The Liberal Politics of Adolf Hitler'' (2016) takes place fifty years in the future. ''The Morning Star'' wrote: "King steadily constructs, layer by layer, an increasingly believable world where a combination of intrusive technology, ruthlessness and effectively bland public relations has ensured the domination of the majority's thoughts and actions." Author
David Peace David Peace (born 1967) is an English writer. Best known for his UK-set novels Red Riding Quartet (1999–2002), '' GB84'' (2004), '' The Damned Utd'' (2006), and '' Red or Dead'' (2013), Peace was named one of the Best of Young British Nove ...
called it "One of the best, if not ''the'' best, bravest and most exciting books I've read in years—needed saying, needed writing and needs to be read". ''Slaughterhouse Prayer'' (2018) is an animal rights story based around three stages in the life of the main character, and how he responds to the meat and dairy industries as a boy, youth, and man. TV producer/author Ben Richards described the novel as "A masterpiece in the tradition of Upton Sinclair and Victor Hugo". Poet and author
Benjamin Zephaniah Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (15 April 1958 – 7 December 2023) was a British writer, dub poet, actor, musician and professor of poetry and creative writing. Over his lifetime, he was awarded 20 honorary doctorates in recognition of his c ...
said: "''Slaughterhouse Prayer'' is a fiction that reveals many truths. Written from a compassionate place, it is sensitive, thoughtful, and there is nothing like it out there". King’s tenth novel, ''London Country'' (2023), develops themes from his earlier ''Satellite Cycle'' titles ''Human Punk'', ''White Trash'', and ''Skinheads''. It is set in the same areas in and around Slough, Uxbridge, and Outer London, and charts the political, social, and cultural shifts of 2015, 2017, and 2019, as experienced by those books' main characters Joe Martin, Ruby James, and Ray English. The original focus of those books is brought forward, namely, the repetition of trauma and evolution of punk, the NHS and Spiritualist Church, the skinhead scene, and family bonds.


Other writing and activities

In the early 1990s, King was co-founder and co-editor, with Peter Mason, of ''Two Sevens'', a small-press magazine that focused on popular culture, in particular
punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
and
alternative music Alternative music may refer to the following types of music: *Independent music *Alternative rock *Alternative pop *Alternative R&B *Neo soul, sometimes known as alternative soul *Alternative reggaeton *Alternative hip hop *Alternative dance *Alter ...
,
street literature Street literature is any of several different types of publication sold on the streets, at fairs and other public gatherings, by travelling hawkers, pedlars or chapmen, from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Robert Collison's account ...
, and politics. In 2007, King set up the independent publishing company London Books with Martin Knight. King has written for a range of newspapers, magazines, and fanzines over the years, and has contributed to ''
New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...
'' in the UK, ''
la Repubblica (; English: "the Republic") is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper with an average circulation of 151,309 copies in May 2023. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and l ...
'' in Italy, and ''
Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...
'' in France. His small-press publication ''Verbal'' publishes new fiction and includes an author interview in each issue. In 2020, the novella ''The Beasts of Brussels'' was published as part of ''The Seal Club'', a three-piece collection that also includes ''The Providers'' by Irvine Welsh and ''Those Darker Sayings'' by Alan Warner. A second novella, ''Grand Union'' (2023), appears in ''The View From Poacher's Hill'', which also features work by Welsh and Warner.


Bibliography


Novels

* '' The Football Factory'' (1996) * '' Headhunters'' (1998) * '' England Away'' (1999) * ''
Human Punk ''Human Punk'' is a novel by John King that tells the story of a group of boys who leave school in 1977, and the effect the emerging punk movement has on their lives. The book is largely based in Slough, a new town on the outskirts of London, ...
'' (2000) * ''
White Trash White trash is a derogatory term in American English for poor white people, especially in the rural areas of the southern United States. The label signifies a social class within the white population, especially those perceived to have a ...
'' (2002) * '' The Prison House'' (2004) * ''
Skinheads A skinhead or skin is a member of a subculture that originated among working-class youth in London, England, in the 1960s. It soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working-class skinhead movement emerging worldwide i ...
'' (2008) * '' The Liberal Politics of Adolf Hitler'' (2016) * ''Slaughterhouse Prayer'' (2018) * ''London Country'' (2023)


Novellas

* ''The Beasts of Brussels'' (''The Seal Club'', 2020) * ''Grand Union'' (''Seal Club: The View From Poacher's Hill'', 2023)


Short stories

* "Millwall Away" ('' Rebel Inc.'', 1995) * "Last Rites" (''Rovers Return'', 1998) * "Space Junk" (''Intoxication'', 1998) * "Bulldog Bobby" (''Verbal'', 2000) * "Last Train Home" (''la Repubblica'', 2008) * "The Penalty" (''High Life'', 2010) * "See No Evil" (''More Raw Material'', 2015) * "The Terror Fantastic" (''PUSH 2'', 2015) * "Blue-Eyed Girl" (''Twenty Shades of Psycho'', 2016) * "Friday Night" (w/Jaimie MacDonald, Hull International Photography Festival, 2017) * "Hard but Fair" (''Denizen of the Dead'', 2020) * "Drawing Breath" (''The Middle of a Sentence'', 2020) * "Johnny Wayne Rocks" (''Songs from the Underground'', 2022)


Nonfiction

* ''Repetitive Beat Generation'' (Interview/collected authors, ed. Steve Redhead, 1998) * ''The Special Ones'' (Editor with Martin Knight, 2007) * ''London Fictions'' (Essay/collected essays, ed. Andrew Whitehead & Jerry White, 2013) * ''PUSH 2'' (Interview/anthology, ed. Joe England, 2015)


Introductions

* "The Gentleman Footballer" (''The Working Man's Ballet'' by Alan Hudson, 2017) * "From Cradle to Grave" (''White Trash'', US edition, 2016) * "In England's Fair City" (''Headhunters'', US edition, 2016) * "Two Sevens Clash" (''Human Punk'', US edition, 2015) * "Come Running After You" (''The Football Factory'', US edition, 2015) * ''PUSH'' (Anthology, East London Press, 2014) * ''May Day'' by John Sommerfield (London Classics, 2010) * ''
Night and the City ''Night and the City'' is a 1950 British film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney and Googie Withers. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gerald Kersh. Shot on location in London and at Shepp ...
'' by Gerald Kersh (London Classics, 2007 & British Fiction, 2020) * '' The Road to Los Angeles'' by John Fante (Rebel Inc/Canongate, 2000) * ''Hoolifan'' by Martin King and Martin Knight (Mainstream, 1999)


Critical studies

* Mark Schmitt: ''British White Trash: Figurations of Tainted Whiteness in the Novels of Irvine Welsh, Niall Griffiths and John King.'' Bielefeld: Transcript, 2018.


References


External links

*
London Books official website





Interview / Benjamin Brill (archived copy)

''The Football Factory'' film trailer
{{DEFAULTSORT:King, John English writers English editors Living people 1960 births