Dockers and Detectives
A bit of random surfing just took me over to Ken Worpole’s site , where I was very pleased to learn that his wonderful book of essays Dockers and Detectives has been republished by Five Leaves Publications (Verso did the first edition, back in 1983). Dockers and Detectives is one of those rare books that not only entertains and informs you, but also opens up new paths of literary discovery. I think that I’d probably have got round to Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain without Worpole, but not as quickly and without seeing their influence on French existentialism. I’m not so sure I would have discovered Alexander Baron’s From the City, From the Plough or Stuart Hood’s wartime memoir Pebbles From My Skull, though. Worpole discusses both in his chapter on the popular literature of the Second World War, along with other works such as Rex Warner’s dystopian The Aerodrome. Recommended.
This is the first public reference I have ever heard of to this book, which I read when it turned up by seemingly occult means in the bookshelf of my student flat. Nobody could recall bringing it in.
I’ve never met anyone since who has even heard of it.
It is an excellent book though, not least for its discussion of the still hugely under-rated James Hanley.
Oh, I love it. I think the Verso edition is sitting on my dad’s mess of an office; but if its not I’ll definitely be getting the new edition just to re-read and show support.
I don’t know this book, but will look it up. While I’m here I just wanted to give a general three cheers for Five Leaves who publish a lot of interesting and important work that probably otherwise wouldn’t get published. I am looking forward to getting their recent collection of the writings of Nicolas Walter, anarchist thinker and meticulous historian of the libertarian left, edited by David Goodway, and just out!