Pot Culture: Biblioplus >> Click on covers to buy books from amazon.co.uk << Senseless Acts Of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties Blackwell Verso, 1996. ISBN: 1859840280 George McKay An alternative social history in which the punk academic, George McKay, examines the roots of DIY culture in the hippy and punk movements and takes the reader on a trip through the British underground, from the first Windsor Free Festival in 1972 to the Castlemorton Free Rave Megaparty exactly twenty years later. Over this period, there's been an extraordinary rise in the number of young people living outside the moribund institutions of British society: travellers, ravers, tribes, squatters, direct-action protesters. Drawing on fanzines and free papers, record lyrics, interviews and diaries, this book gives a vivid, insider account of the evolving 'cultures of resistance' and celebrates their endlessly creative senselessness. Fierce Dancing: Adventures In The Underground Faber and Faber, 1996. ISBN: 0571176305 CJ Stone Best read in conjunction with Senseless Acts... with which it shares much common ground, Chris Stone provides a subjective and entertainingly chaotic account of the counterculture in which he has lived for a quarter of a century, with special reference to the Criminal Justice Act and contemporary anti-roads protests. Of particular interest to students of Pot Culture is the chapter about Wally Hope - the Last of the Hippies and the force behind the Stonehenge festival - which includes an illuminating interview with his friend and hagiographer, Penny Rimbaud of Crass Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House Serpent's Tail, 1998. ISBN: 1852426047 Matthew Collin & John Godfrey The first definitive history of Acid House and Ecstasy culture - 'the real history of the past ten years', according to Irvine Welsh in the cover blurb - is assiduously researched and brilliantly written by Collin and Godfrey, who are both ex-editors of i-D magazine and evidently know their subject intimately, drawing on a wealth of background research and original interviews. with key figures on both sides of the law to present a truly authoritative and eminently readable account of the spectacular explosion of e-culture. >> Click on covers to buy books from amazon.co.uk << go to top Adventures In Wonderland: A Decade of Club Culture Headline, 1999. ISBN: 0747258465 Sheryl Garratt The former editor of The Face, Sheryl Garratt is ideally qualified to trace the emergence and evolution of contemporary dance culture, from the Stonewall riots of 1969 and the advent of disco in New York's gay clubs to the beginnings of House in Chicago and Techno in Detroit, and from the roots of the British Northern Soul scene to the mega-clubs that set up each Summer in Ibiza. In a few more than 300 pages, she interviews with many of the major players and clubbers, as well as her own personal reminiscences of many of the key events of this history, deftly placing this monumental transformation of youth culture in a carefully framed social context. The result is a book that is both a sober social and historical document and a breathtakingly thrilling story. Mr Nice Minerva, 1997. ISBN: 0749395699 Howard Marks If you're one of the half dozen people who has not yet read this modern fable of drug smuggling, subterfuge, and top security penitentiaries, which has made a hero of it's author since his release from prison in 1995 after serving seven years as the consequence of his career as a cannabis smuggler, which at one point entailed 43 aliases and 25 companies, and earned him the title of the DEA's Most Wanted Man, buy it now! The title of this autobiography is taken from one Howard's aliases, but accurately describes his personality and philosophy of life: a more charming international criminal one could not hope to meet and Howard's affability and wisdom shines through his narrative of a mad life. Skin up, boyo! Cannabis Culture: A Journey Through Disputed Territory Bloomsbury, 1999. ISBN: 0-7475-4281-3 Patrick Matthews One day soon pot will be legal and millions of middle class consumers will come out of the closet not only as mere smokers, but as cannabis connoisseurs. The posh Sunday papers will start their own cannabis clubs to supply their discerning readers with high quality dope, like the Temple Ball on the cover of this book, and writers like Patrick Matthews, who won A Glenfiddich award for writing about wine, will be taken on as Cannabis Correspondents and given the arduous job of reporting from the world's key pot producing areas... In the meantime, this books provides a snapshot of the state of play as regards cannabis in contemporary British society. back to top