Colin MacInnes

For the engineer, see Colin R. McInnes.

Colin MacInnes
Born	20 August 1914 London, United Kingdom
Died	22 April 1976 (age 61)
Occupation	novelist, journalist
Nationality	British
Period	1950s to 1970s
Genre	fictional prose
Notable works	City of Spades, Absolute Beginners

Colin MacInnes (20 August 1914 – 22 April 1976) was an English novelist and journalist.

Early life

MacInnes was born in London, the son of singer James Campbell McInnes and novelist Angela Thirkell, who was the granddaughter of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones and also related to Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin. His family relocated to Australia during 1920, MacInness returning during 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 it to MacInnes.

He worked in Brussels from 1930 until 1935, then studied painting in London at the London Polytechnic school and the School of Drawing and Painting in Euston Road. Towards the end of his life, he stayed at the home of Martin Green, his publisher,& Martin's wife, Fiona in Fitzrovia,where he spent time, regarding their small family as his own adoptive one until his death. (Inside Outsider by Tony Gould published by Alison & Busby,1983)

Career

He served in the British intelligence corps during World War II, and worked in occupied Germany after the European armistice. This resulted in his first novel, To the Victors the Spoils. Soon after his return to England, he worked for BBC Radio until he could earn a living from his writing.

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), known collectively as the "London trilogy". 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 a race riot during 1958. Openly bisexual, he wrote on subjects such as urban squalor, racial issues, bisexuality, drugs, anarchy, and "decadence."

Mr Love & Justice concerns two characters, Frank Love and Edward Justice, during late 1950s London. Mr. Love is a novice ponce (pimp); Mr. Justice is a police officer 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. In 2007 a stage adaptation by Roy Williams was performed at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London.

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.

MacInnes occurs as a character in Tainted Love, Stewart Home's novel of 1960s and 1970s counterculture.

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)

Further reading

• Gould, Tony. Inside Outsider: The Life and Times of Colin MacInnes. London: Allison and Busby, 1983.

External links

• Colin MacInnes's 'City of Spades' article on the London Fictions site
• The London of 'Absolute Beginners' on the London Fictions site
• Colin MacInnes at Allison & Busby.