Yardie - Softcover

Victor Headley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 033033042X ISBN 13: 9780330330428

Publisher: Pan MacMillan, 1993

Synopsis

D, a courier carrying cocaine from Jamaica to London, decides to go it alone and disappears into the mean streets of Hackney carrying a kilo of white powder that his erstwhile friends are anxious to recover. But D's treachery will never be forgotten - or forgiven.

About this title

About the Author:

Victor Headley (born 1959) is a Jamaican-born British author. He is the author of the bestselling novel Yardie (1992), which gained cult status upon publication. Other books by Headley included Excess (1993) Yush (1994), Fetish (1995), Here Comes the Bride (1997), Off Duty (2001) and Seven Seals (2003).

From Kirkus Reviews:

Ghetto-based crime novel that's caused a small sensation in London, where its desktop-computer publication and guerrilla-style distribution have met with impressive sales and reviews. Though Headley's debut--set within London's drug-dealing Jamaican community--is fast, tight, and pinpointedly authentic (Headley was born in Jamaica and lives in London), it probably won't make as big a splash here, where it falls within a tradition of underclass crime writing (Donald Goines, et al.) that England lacks and apparently marvels at. There's nothing new in the plot, which is at least as old as Scarface: D., an ambitious young Jamaican gangster, arrives in London with a kilo of cocaine inside his shirt. He turns half of it over to his contacts--members of the Jamaican ``Spicers'' gang--but runs off with the rest and sets himself up as crack kingpin. Soon D.'s living the high low-life: driving a Mercedes, wearing soft leather, partying at reggae concerts, sleeping around, smoking crack, talking jive in the lilting patois favored by all of Headley's characters--and waiting for the Spicers' revenge, which comes indirectly, via a bullet-wounding from Blue, a Spicer underling acting on his own. D. strikes back in the foulest way, raping Blue's girlfriend: a ruthless cutting-down of Blue follows. Meanwhile, legendary Jamaican gangster Tony Chin wants to muscle in on D.'s territory. When D. refuses, Chin turns him over to the cops.... End of story, though Headley apparently is writing a sequel. What's most bracing here is Headley's refusal to romanticize his characters even while empathizing with them all, from ``bad boy'' to housewife to Rastafarian. And his prose is as clean as his emotions, faltering only in a moralistic last page. An exciting debut, then, not without precedent but tough and sharp as nails. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pan MacMillan
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 033033042X
• ISBN 13: 9780330330428
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 185