If you’ve checked out the main part of this site you will probably already know that I consider Baron’s Court, All Change by Terry Taylor to be one of the greatest drugs and youth culture novels of all time. Therefore I’m very proud to have written the introduction to a fiftieth anniversary reissue of the book. For my old take on the importance of this novel in relation to the emergence of mod and the counterculture see the piece I posted on 14 February 2007. My introduction to the new edition starts like this:
“Many novels are forgotten and more or less disappear from circulation. The majority of books to suffer this fate more than deserve it. A handful of them are classics and eventually find their way to wide circulation. One of the most famous examples of this is Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont, which made little impact upon publication but became a canonical example of modernist literature after being rediscovered and championed by the surrealists. Baron’s Court, All Change by Terry Taylor is a very different type of lost classic. It created a bigger splash upon publication than Maldoror, but by the late-sixties had faded from view and most people’s memories. It provides an accurate account of the drug subculture in London at the end of the fifties. The realism and hep talk of Baron’s Court shocked many readers when it first appeared in 1961, but would have raised far fewer eyebrows in the aftermath of the summer of love. That said, it is only more recently that it has become possible to appreciate its historical significance…”
Since if you’ve any sense at all you’ll want to read Baron’s Court, there’s absolutely no point in my reproducing the whole of my introduction here! You can read it all in the reissue and you’re unlikely to lay your mits on anything else – because the original sixties hardback and paperback editions have been near impossible to get for years. The reissue is available to UK residents for £8.00 by cheque from the publisher: Ross Bradshaw, Five Leaves Publications, PO Box 8786, Nottingham, NG1 9AW: or for £9.99 by credit card at http://tinyurl.com/taylor-barons. It will soon also be in bookshops and on Amazon. If you want to order from outside the UK, you may do best to use www.bookdepository.co.uk – since they don’t charge postage. Baron’s Court, All Change was republished on 11 November 2011. It’s a stone-to-the-bone mod classic!
And while you’re at it don’t forget to check – www.stewarthomesociety.org – you know it makes (no) sense!
Comments
Comment by Stoner on 2011-12-02 19:06:35 +0000
I thought Terry Taylor was an American wrestler until I discovered “happy pills’!
Comment by Wilfred on 2011-12-02 20:34:34 +0000
Great news. First Roland Camberton and now this. Never thought I’d be able to read it.
Comment by Amy on 2011-12-02 22:53:42 +0000
Amazon doesn’t have it in but I received my copy from The Book Depository yesterday.
Comment by Ann on 2011-12-03 00:11:40 +0000
Great intro and loved the Wanker synonyms too!
Comment by Pete Doherty on 2011-12-03 00:39:15 +0000
LSD may be psychedelic but crack (smokes) rocks!
Comment by Leonore Stegemann on 2011-12-03 12:46:56 +0000
Are you on drugs?
Comment by Fiona Franklin on 2011-12-03 14:43:48 +0000
Terry Taylor is to the counterculture what Jacques Vaché was to surrealism!
Comment by Peter The Painter on 2011-12-03 16:18:02 +0000
Terry Taylor is so hip that cool just ain’t a good enough word to describe him…
Comment by Jimmy Mack on 2011-12-03 17:03:41 +0000
Amazon might not have the new edition but the reprint seems to have flushed out old copies as there are two for sale on Amazon marketplace right now – if you got money to burn!
Comment by Alex Trocchi on 2011-12-03 17:43:10 +0000
Without the inspirational example of Terry Taylor, there would have been no Project Sigma!
Comment by Psychedelic Syd on 2011-12-03 19:00:34 +0000
This book is a good way of getting back to the roots!
Comment by Astro Boy on 2011-12-03 21:39:48 +0000
You should have reposted the piece you link to here!
Comment by Jeff Bezos on 2011-12-03 22:15:35 +0000
No Baron’s Court All Change, no comment!
Comment by Penis Envy on 2011-12-03 22:49:10 +0000
I’m about to cum!
Comment by Dr Freudenstein on 2011-12-04 14:16:43 +0000
Although I prefer cocaine for the high, I’d always recommend a healthy dose of LSD as a cure of orgasm problems and sexual repression. I haven’t read Taylor’s book yet but I trust he does the same there.
Comment by Martin Haines on 2011-12-04 14:58:00 +0000
Is there an e-Book version?
Comment by mistertrippy on 2011-12-04 20:14:16 +0000
As far as I know there isn’t an e-book – you’d probably do best to contact the publisher Five Leaves to see if there is any plan for one.
Comment by Roger Waters on 2011-12-04 22:39:04 +0000
Far out dude!
Comment by Ian Marchant on 2011-12-04 23:30:46 +0000
The first & best example of a psychogeographical novel set in London!
Comment by Nick Hornby on 2011-12-05 09:50:26 +0000
Barons Court has a lot going for it as a tube station – for a start you can change between the District and the Piccadily lines there. I think there’s a real strength just in the title of this book in referencing this.
Comment by Michael Roth on 2011-12-20 03:41:07 +0000
A copy should be making it’s way to me as we speak. Sounds interesting.
Comment by mistertrippy on 2011-12-20 10:22:08 +0000
It’s a stone to the bone drug and youth culture classic!