Young Punks

Young Punks is the story of a young punk rocker, Mark, growing up in early 1980s Britain. Set in a Sixth Form College, it is a story of alienation and not fitting in, of the confrontation and tension with classmates, teachers and parents caused by being different. It is also a love story as the novel’s main character sets out to win the object of his affections, Carrie, and therefore his classmates over. It is also a story of friendship, as Mark finds himself drawn to the fellow loners in his class, who don’t conform to the established cliques. The novel closely follows Mark’s relationship with his one true friend, fellow punk Pat, who he is bonded to by a mutual love of punk fashion and music and with whom he launches a band intent on hitting the musical big time. Young Punks is a story of growing up, as the two punks gradually discover pubs, gigs, nightclubs, cigarettes, alcohol and sex. Things never run smoothly for Mark, who is constantly subjected to pressures from all sides - the ambitions his parents have for him, his teachers’ frustrations with him, and his classmates’ loathing. Matters get really complicated, however, when he gets his newfound girlfriend pregnant and faces the dilemma of dropping out of his studies with her, pursuing his own musical plans or fulfilling his parents’ ambitions for him to go on to a glittering university career.
A fictional story, Young Punks is set against a factual background of events of the time and gigs attended by the author himself when he was a young punk growing up in the late seventies, early eighties, with the suspicion and fear it aroused in his contemporaries. As a result, at times reality and fiction mix in a story anyone who has ever been different or has been obsessed by alternative music and fashion can relate to. It is as relevant to today’s alternative teenagers and disaffected youth as it was to those in the halcyon days of punk when the author himself was growing up.