For a please with a rather grim reputation, Luton appears to produce striking memoirs.
In 2008 Sarfraz Manzoor gave us "Greetings From Bury Park: Race Religion Rock 'n'Roll" a reminder of the days when young people in Luton were, at least in his case, as likely to be influenced by Bruce Springsteen as Salafism. This weeks Camden New Journal has a delightful feature on Colin Grant's third book "Bageye at the Wheel". A Farley Hill man, Grant focuses on his father, known as Bageye, and the Caribbean migrants of 1970s Luton. A car worker who could not afford to buy one of the Vauxhall's he made, Bageye hoped to make it make playing poker.......
One thing such local history gives us is the hope that what we have now, is not what we will always have. That is one thing I take from Manzoor, but consider this quote from Grant on 1970s Luton:
"I'd say that all the groups in Luton mostly rubbed up alongside each other without much tension, he adds. "In any event, we were taught always to take things on the chin and move on. Looking back at the relative racial harmony in the 1960s and 1970s in Luton the recent rise of the EDL there seems an enigma".
Manzoor,he's a bit of a snobby phony in my book- those Marsh Farmers are often a bit weird.
Luton is the true British multi cultural experiment- and the government ain't giving the place enough work at the moment, full employment would soon sort out the EDL.
Posted by: james walsh | October 20, 2012 at 10:55 PM