Author Howard Cunnell picks his favourites, including a pioneering tale of a young black girl in the UK and a poetry collection by a mysterious ‘Mick Guffan’
I grew up in a southern seaside town. No dad on the scene. No money, but the beach at the end of the road. When I was a kid I knew I wanted to be a writer, but writers didn’t come from where I came from. Then I read a book by SE Hinton called The Outsiders(1967).
Ponyboy Curtis, the narrator, is a sensitive kid who lives with his brothers Darry and Sodapop on the wrong side of the tracks. The boys’ parents died in a car crash. Darry is the leader of the Greasers, a gang of poor kids at war with the Socs, or rich kids. The Outsiders showed me I could write about my world, which seemed to be full of warring teenage tribes – punks, skinheads, teds, rockabillies, bikers. And sunsets too, as Ponyboy says.
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