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Fierce
Dancing (Faber & Faber 1996)
‘Wry, acute, and sometimes hellishly entertaining essays in squalor and
rebellion.' Herald
'If you think an alternative lifestyle means free-range eggs from the
supermarket and lead-free petrol for the company car, read this book.
Read it anyway. A paperback original, it costs a fraction of the price
of a Glastonbury Festival ticket and will pass the time waiting for your
case for obstruction to come up in the Newbury magistrates' court. It is
an abuser's guide to what might once have counted as the Counter Culture
and can now be summarised as A Bunch of Crusties Who Get Up Late. C J
Stone (make that C J Stoned, to take account of his mental state while
conducting his researches) is the best guide to the Underground since
Charon ferried dead souls across the Styx ... He's unbeatable when he
walks the walk and talks the talk with some loopy conversationalists.
They open up to him over a beer, joint or tab ... Stone joins
enthusiastically in their road protests, free festivals, anti-Criminal
Justice Act demos and pow-wows in tepees. He dances in woods to illicit
sound systems ... Each chapter has a wonderful life of its own with a
terrific cast of characters. Even when he does not go out auditioning
for them, his raw material knocks on his door. The man who comes to
repair his computer turns out to have encountered an angel in
Glastonbury Abbey.'
Independent on Sunday
'If you are looking for coming cultures of resistance, you'll find them
here ... C J Stone has written a painfully honest account of life on the
other side of a workaday consumer society. He is an unashamed old hippie
- a commune-dweller in the early 1970s, possessor of a Mondragon-type
goatee - yet has raved and eckied with the youngest of them in search of
continuity between undergrounds then and now.'
New Statesman and Society
'This book is one of the few records of what life in the counterculture
is like, and, more importantly, demonstrates that its supporters did not
come from nowhere ... brilliantly written ... provides a rare historical
insight into the unbroken development of alternative culture.'
Q Magazine
'The book has the ferocity and passion of a clenched fist, yet still
manages insights into the human condition, beautifully observed theories
on existence, and some laugh out loud moments of humour taken straight
from real life situations... The most topical depiction of protest and
alternative living you are likely to read this decade. A chapter
entitled 'Beanfield' is described as 'the dark heart of the book', it
illustrates police brutality and Establishment intervention on the
premise that whatever they can't control is out of control. It is a
heart wrenching chapter ... A book like Fierce Dancing should cause
revolution ... An exhilarating reminder of the state of Britain today.'
City Life
Last of the Hippies (Faber & Faber
1999)
'Tony Blair was. Half the Cabinet were. And so was your dad, probably.
But these days, original hippies are hard to find. Despite the flares,
hennaed hands and cheesecloth revival of recent years, only an
ashtray-full of die-hards remain. Now C.J. Stone has endeavoured to
expose them - and himself at the same time. A professional drop-out for
the latter half of his 45 years, Stone's new book, Last of the Hippies,
traces the movement to its genesis.'
The Times
'A touching memoir .... Stone writes with intelligence, wit and
sensitivity about being a working-class, belated hippie who has been
hanging out with assorted no-hopers in places like Cardiff and
Birmingham. This is a book written from within the hippie phenomenon by
someone looking sceptically out.'
Times Literary Supplement
'Ambivalence rather than embarrassment is what fuels this engagingly
candid memoir ... Much as he likes to protest his disillusion, Stone's
commitment to an underfunded life spent in squats, at free festivals and
Green Gatherings blazes, or flickers, at least, off every page.'
Sunday Times
'In a converted ambulance, Stone traverses a refreshingly uncool
landscape (Birmingham, Hull) digging out friends from a quarter of a
century ago. They are his counter-cultural characters, but now they are
living in council houses surrounded buy pictures of crop circles.'
Independent
'There must be reasons why no-one, not even their mothers, likes
hippies. It's not their horrible hair or their vile clothes or their
dreadful taste in music. It's not even their aversion to soap. The
reasons they're a species in decline are their pride in not making an
effort, in existing in suspended animation. They defy time, but time has
the last laugh, and it's running out for the hippies ... C.J. is
surprisingly engaging for a self-confessed hippie. Last of the Hippies
is something of a diary of his life from the day he decided to grow his
hair (centre parting not optional). You've got to love him just for the
way he confesses from the off that the prospect of free love was what
really sold it to him.'
Big Issue
'Hippies - a word conjuring up a cool, far-out generation, beads and tin
bells jangling around their necks, flowers in their tangled hair, the
sweet pungency of joss sticks everywhere. Everyone knows, or knew, one -
no one wanted their children to grow up to be one. But Where Are They
Now? ... Last of the Hippies is a sometimes sad, sometimes
funny-whimsical look at a generation.'
Yorkshire Post.
Housing Benefit Hill (AK Press 2001)
'As the state sharpens its metaphorical sword, so the pens of writers
like CJ become ever more crucial. Have we the ears to hear? It might not
have the answers but Housing Benefit Hill sure as hell has the
questions, and in a culture where questions are increasingly seen as
heresy, that might be one step out of the maze.'
Penny Rimbaud, Crass Collective.
The Trials of Arthur
(with Arthur Pendragon: Element Books 2003)
'Am I alone in thrilling to this noble throwback to the age of Celtic
romance? Our Prime Minister is a grinning charmless twerp; our
Archbishop of Canterbury has a much spiritual charisma as a raw potato;
and the House of Windsor is dullsville. I'd dump the whole pack of them
tomorrow and replace them with a single Royal, Spiritual and Political
leader - King Arthur.'
AN Wilson, Evening Standard.
‘This is a book about heroism, patriotism, liberty, poetry, martyrdom,
history, mythology, personal self-fashioning and other unforeseen
consequences of enjoying cider, cigarettes and laughs with a bunch of
mates. It is an epic true story of war and religion set in Britain
during the Dark Ages at the end of the twentieth century, which manages
to remain at once, like its main character, passionately serious,
irresistibly compelling, and hilariously good-humoured.’
Professor Ronald Hutton, Bristol University.
‘The Trials of Arthur is the amazing story of one singular man. But it
is also the inspiring tale of an unjustly maligned British
counterculture. Searching, funny, intelligent and illuminating, it is on
one level a rip-roaring read, whimsical and compelling, and on another a
haunting elegy to all those people who refuse to accept that they cannot
make a difference in a world they know must change.’
Deborah Orr, The Independent.
‘In a nutshell: soap dodgers, druids, bikers... all manner of life romps
through this funny and intelligent true-life tale. It gives a worm’s-eye
view of the eco-protest movement.’ Sprit & Destiny.
‘The Trials of Arthur... is the compelling and often hilarious story of
how an ex-soldier, ex-builder and always-biker donned a white frock (his
words) and changed his name legally and regally to Arthur Pendragon.
Trials? He’s had the odd run-in with Her Majesty’s police forces, mainly
when protesting against new bypasses. One of the appendices lists 26
court appearances... So is this long-haired, bearded, cider-loving guy
with a sword really Arthur Pendragon? His passport and driving license
say so. In his passport photo he’s even wearing his crown. But is he
really King Arthur? The co-author has his doubts. So, at times, does
Arthur himself. And he’s perfectly happy for everyone else to think he’s
a raving nutter. If people accept him as King Arthur, then he is King
Arthur, king by acclaim, as it used to be. In any case, as the book
says, if Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chretien de Troyes, Malory, Spencer and
Tennyson can reinvent Arthur for their own purposes, spiritual or
political, then so can we; he’s the King Arthur reinvented for today.
9/10. Great story of counter-culture King.’
Fortean Times.
‘The Trials of Arthur is filled with sagas, some hilarious, others sad
and poignant, which show that this man is a human being on a mission to
uphold “Truth, Honour and Justice”. The authors have been careful not to
force their ideals upon the reader and encourage them to make up their
own minds about Arthur and his deeds all the way through. However, they
illustrate their beliefs in a humorous and dramatic way and, by the end
of the book, the reader can’t help but like the man who calls himself
King Arthur Uther Pendragon.’
Hampshire Chronicle.
‘For those of you not familiar with Arthur Pendragon, Druid King and
Stonehenge defender, you’re in for a treat. Arthur’s story is one that
is needed in these days when the people of Britain are being led into
conflicts not of their choosing and are suffering at the hands of
politicians and bureaucracy. Having faced racism and the worst that
British society can offer, it is no small relief to find this patriotic
upholder of all the good things about being British. Long live the once
and present King! Highly recommended.’
Tania Ahsan, Prediction.
‘The Trials of Arthur... is the partly ghosted autobiography of an
ex-soldier and biker called John Rothwell who reinvented himself as
“King Arthur” in the 1980s and became a leading eco-warrior. A
larger-than-life eccentric character renowned for frequently being found
“tired and emotional” in ditches, he has been in and out of court and
jail in his role as a political campaigner against motorway construction
and for public access to Stonehenge. If you still think that being a
pagan in the 21st century means wearing dreadlocks, living in a tipi and
having a mongrel on a string then you will probably enjoy these wacky
adventures of a Peter Pan character wandering around in a retro-hippy
Never-Never Land.’
The Cauldron.
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