GBH

A NEW EDITION OF A CRIME MASTERWORK FROM THE AUTHOR OF GET CARTER British crime icon Ted Lewis's GBH is an unnerving tale of paranoia and madness in the heart of London's 1970s criminal underworld. 'Ted Lewis is one of England's finest, but still most neglected post-war writers' George Fowler heads a lucrative london-based criminal syndicate that specializes in illegal pornography. Fowler is king, with a beautiful woman at his side and a swanky penthouse office, but his world is in jeopardy. Someone is undermining his empire from within, and Fowler becomes increasingly ruthless in his pursuit of the unknown traitor, trusting an ever-smaller set of advisers. Juxtaposed with the terror and violence of Fowler's last days in London is the flash-forward narrative of his hideout bunker in a tiny English beach town, where he skulks during the off-season, trying to salvage his fallen empire. Just as it seems possible for Fowler to rise again, another trigger may cause his total, irreparable unravelling.

The book is outstanding: Lewis ... judges perfectly when to horrify the reader and when to hold back... But the book is also funny and zestful: Lewis's delight in his complex double-cross plot and low-life characters is infectious, and there is poetry in his stark evocation of Lincolnshire's desperate tattiness. It's equal parts suicide note and celebration of the human ability to find reasons to keep going, His characters have no tenderness, the settings are bleak, but this isn't pulp fiction - it's real writing, GBH is the final masterpiece of one of England's finest, but still most neglected post-war writers, epic... a masterpiece that stacks against the best hard-nosed gritty crime fiction written anywhere, Lewis's swan-song... a guy who had artistry coming out of his pores

Born in Manchester, England, Ted Lewis (1940-1982) spent most of his youth in Barton-upon-Humber in the north of England. After graduating from Hull Art School, Lewis moved to London and first worked in advertising before becoming an animation specialist, working on the Beatles' Yellow Submarine. His novels are the product of his lifelong fascination with the criminal lifestyle of London's Soho district and the down-and-out lifestyle of the English factory town. Lewis' novels pioneered the British noir school. He authored nine novels, the second of which was famously adapted in 1971 as the now iconic Get Carter, which stars Michael Caine.