In these novels MacInnes strikes me as an aspiring anthropologist, impressing us with his observations of British blacks, prostitutes and pimps, and postwar British teenagers. Plots are razor-thin, and when they are not enough to display his insider information, his characters have unlikely discussions about British immigration policy, the relative merits of appearing before a magistrate and a judge, how police entrap gay men in bathrooms, and even the Wolfenden report. On the plus side, MacInnes has a gift for visual description, and an ear for the many dialects of London. Characters' names are particularly inventive. The nerdy narrator of Absolute Beginners is not a very convincing working class teenager, but his celebration of London is always engaging. I assume that the high critical regard in which these novels are held reflects their value as records of a vanished London. The account of the Brixton Riots which closes Absolute Beginners is probably a unique contemporary record of its type.

'City of Spades' is a compliment to 'Absolute Beginners', the first Colin MacInnes novel I read, but a mesmerising story in its own right. I love and admire how the author can create such vivid and personable characters from two different perspectives, and present a balanced and objective potrayal of racial tension in 1950s London, delivered in a witty and natural style (and in first person, too - one of only a few writers who know how to utilise this honest yet deceptive narrative voice). The chapters switch back and forth between Montgomery Pew, a sensitive yet ineffective young Londoner (the 'white man'), and Johnny Fortune, a student from Lagos who quickly learns the reality of life in the city, but their voices are so distinct that there is rarely any confusion between the two 'I's. The character names are also creative and fitting, from Mr Fortune to Billy Whispers and Peter Pay Paul!

The third book in this trilogy is 'Mr Love and Justice', but the more conventional omniscient narrator isn't as engaging, nor the two central characters, Frankie Love and Ed Justice. ( )