Hackney Rose Red Empire

luka

Well-known member
i knew you would be eden you incorrigble hackney hobbit.
im quite enjoying it, more than i thought i would. he's getting old and gentle.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Yeah I quite like it but it frustrates me that it is mainly focussing on the stories of people I am not all that bothered about (i.e. people who are his mates rather than my mates, ha ha).

I do like the asides at the Council and surveillance and stuff.

The book launch at Stoke Newington Bookshop turned into a right bunfight tho, which was great.
 

luka

Well-known member
i agree theres too many interviews with terribly respectable, terribley twee people, saying 'ooh i had to move out becuase of all the muggings, its just terrible'
but you can just skim them.
do you think there should be more black people?
 

luka

Well-known member
hackney, in the popular imagination, IS black people, but sinclair seems too intimidated by them to talk with them.
tell me about the launch.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
broadly there should be more working class voices in the book, including black people.

The launch was him in discussion with Ken Worpole. It was originally planned for the Library but was banned by Hackney Council because they felt he might not be "on message" about stuff like the Olympics.

The Q&A's descended into a bit of a ruck with various people shouting at each other. I am happy to say that I played my part.

The editor of "N16 Magazine" (or "gentrification quarterly" as it is known) and a Labour councillor were taken to task. A librarian stood up and had a rant at someone who dissed the library. Various posh women were very rude to each other. It was a blast!
 

luka

Well-known member
i would agree with that. the twee voices are grating. wish i'd been to the launch now....
 

john eden

male pale and stale
This review from Amazon basically sums it up for me:

By J. MCALLISTER (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

I was born in Hackney and lived in and around it for many years apparently, I discover, as a close neighbour of Mr Sinclair for a time, so this book was a must read for me. Sadly I have to say that I found it disappointing on a number of levels. The first aspect that troubles me is one that is endemic to his writings as a whole which rely on interviews and conversations ,that is the constant inclusion of his small coterie of friends to supply material.

Chris Petit and now his son are referenced here as is Stewart Home. Less well known subjects in this book are generally other middle class "artists" who have washed up in the borough, the great unwashed have no voice here. The mass of Hackney residents are represented as winos, hoodies , beggars and chancers. The Holly estate for instance is discussed at length by people who live close to it but not those live on or in it, giving the impression that the place is something of a war zone but no sense of what it is like to live there.

The Four Aces a Legendary reggae and Ska venue has its history dismissed in a sentence while a brief period when their premises became part of the rave scene rates half a chapter, because he encounters someone who went there once. Other venues like Phebes and The All Nations are ignored totally. For me the significance of these places to black culture over a long period is is a more significant topic. But the nice white middle class residents that Mr Sinclair occupies himself with would know nothing about that and those who might are not in evidence.

Mr Sinclairs work is often referred to as offering a complex and multi layered treatment of his subject but there are a number of layers that are missing here, interestingly the ones that are generally missing from histories written by middle class academics So in this instance I feel that he has given us less of his subject than it deserves.
 

STN

sou'wester
not read mine yet, but I'm always up for a bit of Chris Petit.

And a bit of Aba Shanti, does he get a look in?
 

massrock

Well-known member
Caught a brief bit of this being read on Radio 4. Something about meanderings around North North - Finchley, Barnet, Boreham Wood, which I enjoyed because I know meandering around there well. Not sure what that has to do with Hackney though.
 

worrior

Well-known member
Yes I was disappointed with this. Am a fan of his prose and his stance against the makeover scam of London. But the race issue definitely jars. Black people are only represented as muggers and/or mentally ill. He describes the only black person he interviews as an 'immigrant' despite the fact this person's lived in Hackney all his life - unlike certain Anglo-Welsh newcomers....
 

sufi

lala
And a bit of Aba Shanti, does he get a look in?
what's he got to do with hackney?
(i think i remember he had a venue up there some time, but my hackney geography was not so good back then.. was it amhurst rd somewhere?)
 
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