East of Acre Lane

Description

'Alex Wheatle writes from a place of honesty and passion' Steve McQueen, director of Small Axe East of Acre Lane is the fast-paced and razor sharp story of a young man trying to do the right thing from celebrated author Alex Wheatle, one of the figures who inspired Steve McQueen's Small Axe It is 1981, and Brixton is on the verge of exploding. Biscuit lives with his mother, brother and sister, trapped hustling on the frontline for the South London badman Nunchucks. As the patience of the community breaks and the riots erupt, Biscuit must make a choice that could change his life forever. 'His prose is as sharp as a barber's cutthroat and the hard edged dialogue perfectly captures that London vibe. Thrilling, very funny, and most of all a page turner' Courttia Newland

'Born on the 3 January 1963 (same birthday as JRR Tolkein, they tell me), it was my father who looked after me for the first few years of my life, raising me in Brixton (my mother, who was not married to my father, returned to her husband and other children - she emigrated to the States in the early 1970s). 'By the time I was five years of age, my father could not cope with me and secured a full time job at the same time, so I was sent into care with Lambeth social services. While I was in care I still had contact with my father's family but when he returned to Jamaica in the mid 1970s, I did lose touch with aunts, uncles, etc for a while. 'I returned to Brixton in 1978, living in a hostel near Brixton Hill that was provided by Lambeth social services. Expelled three times from schools, I had no certificates or examinations behind me. However, my social worker at the time found me a job with Lambeth construction services as a trainee carpenter. With this interest, my friends and I built our first sound system by the time I was sixteen. We played gigs at parties, youth clubs, etc. Just before I was eighteen I had a serious bout of pneumonia and I subsequently left the construction trade. It was 1981, Brixton was about to blow up and after I recovered from illness I found employment very hard to find. 'Shortly after the riots I found myself in Wormwood Scrubs for two months because of a driving, drug offence. It was when I came out of prison that I was determined to do something with my life. I began to read greedily and during this time I retrained as an engineer. I was keeping a diary, writing song lyrics and poetry. My subject matter was my life and the streets of Brixton. Two of these lyrics even made it nearly twenty years later into the pages of East Of Acre Lane. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s I was performing poetry in 'poetry jams' in Brixton. People named me the Brixton Bard.'

'Alex Wheatle's second novel is a rhythmic, fast-talking tour of the tower blocks of South London.The strength of the novel lies in the characters who form Biscuit's posse ! writing in a street slang that reads like an urgent urban poetry, Wheatle catches the dialogue of the friends and contrasts it with passages of distilled description. He observes meticulously the subcultures within the black community! It is this blend of frantic action and thoughtful writing that ranks Alex Wheatle alongside Courttia Newland as one of the most exciting writers of the black urban experience.' The Times 'Dubbed the Brixton Bard by his contemporaries, Alex Wheatle was always ambitious! He is first and foremost a story teller.' The Voice 'This is a vibrant book pulsing with the reggae beats of the era. The dialogue! has rhythm and inventiveness. And the violent climax is a cathartic one, the logical and positive first stage of a revolution.' ***** Independent on Sunday 'Wheatle's novel is a bright, adventurous tale, jammed to the rafters with a parade of fine hustlers, headcases and herbsmen.' The Latest 'In East of Acre Lane Alex Wheatle has managed far more than simply pulling off a fast, punchy morlaity tale centring on a young man's dilemma about going straight or opting for a life of crime! Action packed, funny and filled with cocky banter between its teenage male characters, references to reggae music and street stye, its a cool, credible read! Wheatle has written a hardhitting novel which is an incendiary reminder of one of the most explosive events in London's post war history.' Big Issue