- Colin MacInnes
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For the engineer, see Colin R. McInnes.
Colin MacInnes Born 20 August 1914
London, United KingdomDied 22 April 1976 (age 61) Occupation novelist, journalist Nationality British Period 1950s to 1970s Genres fictional prose Notable work(s) City of Spades, Absolute Beginners Colin MacInnes (20 August 1914 – 22 April 1976) was an English novelist and journalist.
Contents
Early life
MacInnes was born in London, the son of singer James Campbell McInnes and novelist Angela Thirkell, who was also related to Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin. His family moved to Australia in 1920, MacInness returning in 1930. For much of his childhood, he was known as Colin Thirkell, the surname of his mother's second husband; later he used his father's name McInnes, afterwards changing to MacInnes.
He worked in Brussels from 1930 to 1935, then studied painting in London at the London Polytechnic and the School of Drawing and Painting in Euston Road.
Career
He served in the British intelligence corps during World War II, and worked in occupied Germany after VE Day. This led to his first novel, To The Victors The Spoils. Following his return to England, he worked for BBC Radio until he could earn a living from his writing.[1]
He was the author of a number of books depicting London youth and black immigrant culture during the 1950s, in particular City of Spades (1957), Absolute Beginners (1959) and Mr Love & Justice (1960). Many of his books were set in the Notting Hill area of London, then a poor and racially mixed area, home to many new immigrants and which suffered race riots in 1958. Openly bisexual,[2] he wrote on subjects such as urban squalor, racial issues, bisexuality, drugs, anarchy, and "decadence."[3]
Mr Love & Justice follows two characters, Frank Love and Edward Justice, in late 50s London. Mr. Love is a novice ponce (pimp); Mr. Justice is a cop newly transferred to the plain-clothes division of the Vice Squad. Gradually their lives intermesh. The title of the novel was used for a 2008 album, Mr. Love & Justice, by Billy Bragg. Bragg's previous album England, Half English was also named after a MacInnes book.
Adaptations and influence
Absolute Beginners was filmed in 1986 by director Julien Temple.[4] In 2007 a stage adaptation by Roy Williams was performed at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London.[5]
City of Spades was adapted by Biyi Bandele as a radio play, directed by Toby Swift, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 28 April 2001.[6]
MacInnes occurs as a character in Tainted Love, Stewart Home's novel of 1960s and 1970s counterculture.[7]
Bibliography
- To the Victor the Spoils (1950)
- June In Her Spring (1952)
- City of Spades (1957)
- Absolute Beginners (1959)
- Mr Love & Justice (1960)
- England, Half English (1961) - a collection of previously published journalism
- London, City of Any Dream (1962) - photo essay
- Australia and New Zealand (1964) - Time/Life Volume
- All Day Saturday (1966)
- Sweet Saturday Night (1967) - a History of British music-hall
- Westward to Laughter (1969)
- Three Years to Play (1970)
- Loving Them Both: A Study of Bisexuality (1973)
- Out of the Garden (1974)
- No Novel Reader (1975)
- Out of the Way: Later Essays (1980)
- Absolute MacInnes: The Best of Colin MacInnes (1985)
References
- ^ University of Rochester Library biographical note
- '^ Loving Them Both: Study of Bisexuality and Bisexuals, Colin MacInnes, Martin Brian and O'Keeffe, May 1973, ISBN 0856162302
- ^ Vulliamy, Ed (15 April 2007), "Absolute MacInnes", The Guardian, http://arts.guardian.co.uk/theatre/drama/story/0,,2057327,00.html, retrieved 2008-11-19
- ^ IMDB – Absolute Beginners
- ^ "Absolute MacInnes", Ed Vulliamy, The Observer, 15 April 2007
- ^ BBC – Saturday Play – City of Spades
- ^ Stewart Home, Tainted Love, Virgin Books, London, 2005.
External links
=Colin MacInnes's 'City of Spades' article on the London Fictions site
=The London of 'Absolute Beginners' on the London Fictions site
Categories:- English novelists
- Gay writers
- LGBT people from England
- 1914 births
- 1976 deaths
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