Suedehead – Allen Richard (2023)

Skinheads were dead. They had died out. Home never attracted them. They dreamed their whole lives of a luxury apartment somewhere in London's West End. Now they wanted to leap from the poor street into the rich society. With one huge jump. Freshly released from prison after kicking a police sergeant, former skinhead Joe Hawkins heads into the big world - a job at a brokerage firm, a luxury apartment, and (hopefully) lots of money. It's time to change the style - and so Joe becomes a Suedehead. His hair is a few millimeters longer, his uniform consists of a velvet coat with a collar, a bowler hat, and a neatly trimmed umbrella - with a sharp tip. Joe plays the pet of the establishment, but he remains that irredeemably wicked and cunning thug from Skinhead who wants to pick up girls, steal, and kick everything. It doesn't take long before he finds more Suedes willing to create chaos under the guise of seriousness... but can Joe and seriousness ever get along? Suedehead is the second of Richard Allen's cult novels that define his era, featuring the antihero Joe Hawkins. It was first published in 1971. ***** "... suedeheads, skinheads, and smoothies were largely part of everyday life. There was a huge atmosphere of intensity... something interesting about it...