Book description
Set in Brixton, 20 years after the race riots, The Dirty South follows
the adventures of Bricky teenager Dennis Huggins as he drifts into the
easy, dangerous life of the shotta - or drug dealer - and discovers
that, hard as the struggle for respect on the streets is, the struggle
for love is harder still. At least Dennis has involved parents looking
out for him; too many of his friends have no guidance other than that
offered by their fellow shottaz, or the dubiously motivated black
Muslims. Wheatle brilliantly evokes the temptations of the thug life for
young black men growing up in London's 'Dirty South' - a fast,
compelling novel that offers no easy answers, but refuses to shy away
from asking the difficult questions. Alex Wheatle was born in 1963 to
Jamaican parents living in London. He spent most of his childhood in a
children's home, which he left at 14 to live in a hostel in Brixton. At
18, he was involved in the Brixton uprising and went to prison for 3
months. On his release, he continued to perform as a DJ and MC under the
name Yardman Irie, moving on to the performance poetry circuit as The
Brixton Bard in the early '90s. His second novel, East of Acre Lane, won
the London New Writers Award (2000). In 2008, he was awarded an MBE for
services to literature.
