Category Archives: New English Library

Breakfast in the Ruins podcast: New English Library Bikermania

Posted on March 31, 2023 by Andrew Nette| Leave a comment

I suspect most of you have not heard of the Breakfast in the Ruins podcast. Taking its name from the title of a 1972 science fiction novel by Michael Moorcock, the podcast has a major focus on the work and influence of the British writer. But it also delves much further afield to take in related subcultural and niche books and films, particularly from the late 1960s and 1970s.

It is one of my favourite podcasts.

Anyway, I was very happy to be a guest on the latest episode, my second Breakfast in the Ruins appearance, talking about the sleazy, exploitative but sociologically savvy English publisher New English Library and their lengthy run of biker paperbacks.

In particular we focused on two books: Angels from Hell (1973), written by Mick Norma, a pseudonym for Laurence James, an NEL editor who would go onto have major paperback writing career; and The Devil’s Rider (1973) by Alex R Stuart, aka Scottish author Stuart Gordon.

In addition to these books, we also cover off on the occult, the history of bikers in pulp fiction and exploitation film, and the state of British society in the 1970s, among many other topics. These books have some fairly out there content, so the usual content warning applies.… Read more

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Posted in Australian pulp fiction, Book Reviews, British crime cinema, British pulp fiction, Girl Gangs, Biker Boys and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction & Youth Culture, 1950-1980, Men's Adventure Magazines, New English Library, Pulp fiction, Pulp fiction in the 70s and 80s, Pulp Friday, Pulp paperback cover art, Sticking it the the Man Revolution and Counter Culture in Pulp and Popular Fiction 1950 1980

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Video of launch of Horwitz Publications, Pulp Fiction & the Rise of the Australian Paperback

Posted on October 17, 2022 by Andrew Nette| Leave a comment

If you missed the recent launch of my monograph Horwitz Publications, Pulp Fiction and the Rise of the Australian Paperback, organised by the Australian National University’s Centre for Australian Literary Cultures, the video of the event is now on Youtube for your viewing pleasure. The book, published in hardback by Anthem Publications, is price for higher education institutions at present, but a cheaper paperback version will be available mid-2023.

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Posted in Book cover design, British pulp fiction, Crime fiction, Horwitz Publications, Monarch Books, New English Library, Pan Books, Pulp fiction, Pulp fiction in the 70s and 80s, Pulp fiction set in Asia, Pulp Friday, Pulp paperback cover art, Toni Johnson Woods, True crime, Vintage pulp paperback covers, Westerns

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Interview: James Herbert

Posted on October 4, 2021 by Andrew Nette| 3 Comments

Regular readers of this site will be familiar with my fascination with New English Library paperbacks of the 1970s, as well as my confoundment that no one has yet written a comprehensive history of the incredibly influential mass market publisher. The first of the pulp and popular fiction histories that I co-edited for PM Press, Girl Gangs Biker Boys and Real Cook Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950-1980, focused in some depth on NEL’s youthsploitation books (bikers and the skinhead and other paperbacks written by James Moffat aka Richard Allen), including re-published important material written by British critic Stewart Home. NEL was also included in my second PM Press book, Sticking it to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950-1980. I’ve read bits and pieces on NEL, how they worked, their authors and their books around the place, mainly on-line, but there is nothing comprehensive I am aware of that has really pulled all this disparate information together and properly analysed the significant of NEL to 1970s British print culture.

Anyway, when award winning writer, author and horror historian Johnny Mains mentioned to me during an online discussion that he had an interview with one of NEL’s best known authors, James Herbert, that didn’t have a home, I was keen to provide one.… Read more

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Posted in Book cover design, British pulp fiction, Girl Gangs, Biker Boys and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction & Youth Culture, 1950-1980, Horror, Interviews, New English Library, Pulp fiction, Pulp fiction in the 70s and 80s, Pulp paperback cover art, Sticking it the the Man Revolution and Counter Culture in Pulp and Popular Fiction 1950 1980

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Book Review: Jane Gaskell’s A Sweet, Sweet Summer

Posted on May 30, 2021 by Andrew Nette| Leave a comment

One of the authors I really wanted to include among those examined in the third book I have co-edited with my friend, Iain McIntyre, Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985, was British writer, Jane Gaskell. In particular her novel, A Sweet, Sweet Summer, first published in hardback by Hodder and Stoughton in 1969. To be honest, as is so often the case, what first attracted me to finding out more about this title was the cover of the 1971 Sphere edition, with its uniquely early 1970s dystopian take on the female juvenile delinquent. It’s a wonderful piece of photographic paperback art, of the sort that the British did so well at the time, no doubt cheaply done (in all likelihood the model was one of the typists in the Sphere office), but very effective.

Plans to include Gaskell in Dangerous Visions and New Worlds were scuppered by the fact that I simply could not find a copy of A Sweet, Sweet Summer anywhere at a price that I could even remotely afford. The book is incredibly rare and has not been republished. Indeed, as I discovered when I posted an image of the cover above on Twitter – long after Dangerous Visions and New Worlds had been put to bed – I just was one of many bibliophiles who had been on the lookout for an affordable second-hand copy of this Gaskill book.… Read more

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Posted in Book cover design, Book Reviews, Dangerous Visions and New Worlds Radical Science Fiction 1950 to 1985, Dystopian cinema, Girl Gangs, Biker Boys and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction & Youth Culture, 1950-1980, New English Library, Pulp fiction in the 70s and 80s, Pulp paperback cover art, Science fiction and fantasy

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Upcoming talk: The motorcycle – rebel in pop culture

Posted on April 4, 2021 by Andrew Nette| 4 Comments

A heads up to Pulp Curry readers, that on Thursday April 22 EST, I’ll be giving a talk to coincide with the exhibition currently being hosted by the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, The Motorcycle: Design, Art, Desire. The talk is entitled, ‘The Motorcycle: Rebel in Pop Culture’.

Throughout the decades, motorbikes have been portrayed as a symbol of freedom and rebellion in fiction, music and on the screen. I’ll be taking you on a journey through the different representations of the motorcycle in youth and popular culture history, mainly in the United States, Australia and Great Britain. I’ll be examining what has given the motorbike its cool reputation as well as discussing how it has also functioned as a lightning rod for post war concerns around various youth subcultures. The talk will focus on film, but I’ll also look at the representation of the motorbike in music and pulp fiction.

The talk, which will take place on Zoom, will start at 7pm EST, is free & your time zone permitting open to anyone anywhere to attend. All you have to do is book at this link. I hope you can attend.

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Posted in 1960s American crime films, 1970s American crime films, Australian crime film, Beat culture, Book cover design, British pulp fiction, Crime film, Dystopian cinema, Girl Gangs, Biker Boys and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction & Youth Culture, 1950-1980, Horwitz Publications, Men's Adventure Magazines, Neo Noir, New English Library, Ozsploitation, Pulp fiction, Pulp fiction in the 70s and 80s, Pulp Friday, Pulp paperback cover art, Rollerball, Vintage pulp paperback covers

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