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Works by John King Headhunters, The Prison House, White Trash, Human Punk, The Football Factory | ||
Skinheads is the seventh novel written by the British author John King. It was published in 2008 by Jonathan Cape.
Set in the same new town hinterland as two of King's previous books, Human Punk and White Trash, it forms a loose trilogy with those two, in what King has described as The Satellite Cycle.
The main character is Terry English, an original skinhead approaching his fifties who is still mourning his dead wife, attempting to keep his nephew Nutty Ray (also a skinhead) out of trouble, and concerned that his 15-year-old son Laurel might be a closet hippy. Terry is also dogged by ill-health. But he is kept going by a crush on a younger employee and dreams of re-opening a derelict club called The Union Jack.
Raquel Moran, in The New Review, said the central theme of Skinheads is that "family values, the love for your own country and the ethics of hard work are timeless sentiments which anyone and everyone, including members of the British skinhead culture, is allowed to praise and defend in their own way".