Cathi with Jordan

"IF YOU'VE NEVER READ A BOOK ABOUT PUNK, THIS IS THE ONLY ONE YOU'LL EVER NEED"
– Julie Burchill, The New Statesman

"I WAS ENTIRELY ABSORBED. POP-CULTURAL HISTORIANS HAVE BEEN COMBING THE DEBRIS OF PUNK FOR DECADES, BUT JORDAN AND HER RESOURCEFUL AMANEUSIS CATHI UNSWORTH HAVE BROUGHT ALL KINDS OF UNEXPECTED GEMS TO LIGHT."
– DJ Taylor, author of Orwell: The Life

"JORDAN'S EXTRAORDINARY GOSPEL IS HERE TO SET YOU STRAIGHT"
 – Ian Fortnum, Classic Rock 9/10

"THE LAST GREAT PUNK STORY BEAUTIFULLY TOLD"
– John Robb, Louder Than War

"THE MOST INSIGHTFUL PUNK BOOK SINCE ENGLAND'S DREAMING. IMPECCABLE STYLE BUT SUBSTANCE TOO"
– Jim Wirth, Uncut 8/10

“Jordan created punk rock. She was selling it on the front line” – Adam Ant
“Jordan was the original Sex Pistol” – Derek Jarman
With her white beehive and Mondrian make up, Jordan’s look helped shape a revolution and has continued to be an iconic part of pop culture ever since. In Defying Gravity, published on 25th April by Omnibus Press, Cathi talks to key faces of the punk scene including Vivienne Westwood, Paul Cook, Marco Pirroni, Holly Johnson and Michael Collins – Jordan’s partner behind the SEX counter – to reveal the true story of a life at the eye of punk’s storm. How did a ballet mad girl from sleepy Sussex make her way – via the gay clubs of Brighton and London – to 430 King’s Road and the eye of punk’s storm? Jordan finally reveals her outrageous life story as she shares her adventures with McLaren and Westwood, The Sex Pistols, Adam and The Ants, Derek Jarman and Andy Warhol. Complete with specially commissioned cover art by Graham Humphreys, Defying Gravity also features a wealth of previously unseen images from Simon Barker, Sheila Rock and Harri Peccinotti .
 
Jordan explains. “I had been asked a few times if I would embark on writing my memoir but either felt it self indulgent or simply not the right time, and it took a series of events, unexpected meetings and inspired people to make me want to do it. I needed encouragement to put my thoughts into writing and thank goodness I was introduced to Cathi. We both wanted this book to be a social comment on the times with serious historical content, and we made the many marvellous contributors feel at ease to speak freely and candidly”.

ORDER THE BOOK HERE
ORDER THE DELUXE BOXSET HERE, HERE OR HERE
ORDER THE DELUXE SLIPCASE HERE OR HERE
GET UPDATES ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE HERE

PRESS ENQUIRIES: debra@greatnorthernpr.co.uk
EVENT ENQUIRIES: David.Stock@musicsales.co.uk

Cathi and Jordan pic by Robert Shiret
Book cover by Graham Humphreys

                                                                                                    Site last updated: 15/6/2019

NEW PUBLICATION: CATHI IN INVISIBLE BLOOD

Cathi is delighted to be joining 17 stars of noir, including Christopher Fowler, Denise Mina, Ken Bruen and John Harvey, for this new anthology edited by Maxim Jakubowski. Cathi's story Black Dog is based on a true crime connected to the Bella in the Wych Elm mystery – the full scoop is in this month's Fortean Times. To get a copy of the book, go HERE

NEW! JORDAN AND CATHI ON LONDON LIVE

Cathi and Jordan were interviewed by London Live about Defying Gravity, The King's Road and Punk's past and future. Tune in to the full interview HERE

NEW AUDIO:
CATHI'S MIXTAPE ON
THE VOICE OF CASSANDRE
VOL 2

The Trans-Europe Express radio show the Voice of Cassandre asked Cathi to do another mixtape! No talk, just one hour of rocking good tunes, featuring Steven Jesse Bernstein, Nancy and Lee, Lee Dorsey, Tom Jones, Barry Adamson, Gallon Drunk, Thee Headcoatees, Serge Gainsbourg and more HERE
Find VOL 1 on the Audio Page from the menu on the left

CATHI INTERVIEWED BY JOHN KING IN THE NEW VERBAL – OUT NOW

VERBAL ISSUE 6 OUT NOW FROM LONDON BOOKS
‘Who Put Bella In The Witch Elm?’ Cathi discusses her novel That Old Black Magic, Helen Duncan and our Spiritualist tradition with John King. Plus suedehead poetry from Tim Wells and new fiction from Koushik Banerjea, Paul Duncan, Michael Keenaghan, Martin Knight and Joseph Ridgwell. Talking Books by Peter Mason – The Brown Dog Affair: anti-vivisection riots and rebellion in London Town. Comes with an Allan Kausch cover: Dogboy Slate. (52 pages, £2.50 + £1p&p) Order your copy HERE

HEAR JORDAN AND CATHI INTERVIEWED BY JOHN ROBB HERE

HEAR JORDAN ON THE ROBERT ELMS SHOW HERE (go to 36 mins in)

READ JULIE BURCHILL'S REVIEW IN THE NEW STATESMAN HERE

HEAR CATHI ON THE ROCK'SBACKPAGES PODCAST

Cathi joins BARNEY HOSKYNS and MARK PRINGLE to talk about DEFYING GRAVITY, Goth, Dick Dale, the Black Heart of the Black Country and Dr Dee of Mortlake HERE

READ JORDAN IN
THE GUARDIAN

Jordan talks about the evolution of her look, the path that lead her to King's Road, the birth of The Pistols and the making of DEFYING GRAVITY with Paul Tierney HERE

HEAR JORDAN ON
THE GRIPES OF ROSS

Jordan talks to ANDY ROSS on BOOGALOO RADIO about the making of DEFYING GRAVITY and much more HERE

READ JORDAN IN i-D

Jordan talks about the making of DEFYING GRAVITY and looks back at the birth of punk from her roots in Seaford to her journey up The King's Road. With James Anderson HERE

THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC WINS ABCD AWARD

THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC has won this year's Academy of British Cover Design award for Crime/Thriller front cover. Many congatulations to designer Leo Nickolls and Art Director Pete Dyer of Serpent's Tail who created this beautiful and thoughtful design for the book in stunning period detail. For more, go HERE

FORTHCOMING EVENTS:

QUEENS OF PUNK:
JORDAN AND CATHI JOIN CELESTE BELL, ZOË HOWE AND VIVIEN GOLDMAN AT THE BRITISH LIBRARY,
4 JULY, 7PM

KNOWLEDGE CENTRE, THE BRITISH LIBRARY
96 EUSTON ROAD, LONDON NW1 2DB
THURSDAY 4 JULY 7PM-9PM
TICKETS £15/£10 CONC BUY IN ADVANCE FROM HERE 
Punk was a moment when everything changed for women in music. The late Poly Styrene was a songwriter, uncompromising artist and free thinker who fronted X-Ray Spex, a band who playful aesthetic was a antidote to the nihilism of punk. Her story has been pieced together by her daughter Celeste Bell in Dayglo: The Poly Styrene Story co-authored by Zoë Howe. They join Jordan, a legendary presence at the very epicentre of punk, her white beehive and dramatic make-up defining a look that has been iconic part of pop culture ever since. She has now created account of her life and times in new book Defying Gravity: Jordan’s Story, with Cathi Unsworth. A night of unregulated celebration and heartfelt memories, chaired by writer and musician Vivien Goldman, who has just published her own history, Revenge of the She-Punks: A Feminist Music History from Poly Styrene to Pussy Riot.
Bar open 18.00. The event will be followed by a book signing. FOR MORE, PLEASE GO HERE

NEW TRANSLATION: WITHOUT THE MOON'S FRENCH COUNTERPART, LONDON NOCTURNE

Cathi's reimagining of two weeks in 1942 when the Blitz-hit capital suffered a further reign of terror in the form of the Blackout Ripper, the Blitz Witch and the baptism of the new Waterloo Bridge in blood. Reimagined by Rivages Noir as LONDON NOCTURNE, translated by the wonderful  Isabelle Maillet and available HERE

NEW TRANSLATION:
WEIRDO'S SPANISH SISTER BICHO RARO

WEIRDO, that tale of teenage transgression within the fading glamour of an East Anglian seaside resort, has just made the transition to Spain with this beautiful new 'Muddy Mots' release from Sd-edicions, available HERE

NEW ON AUDIBLE: LONDON NOIR

It's been a long time since we did this particular working, but London Noir, the collection of short stories Cathi edited for Akashic's Noir series is now available on Audible.
With original short stories by Barry Adamson, Joolz Denby, Sylvie Simmons, John L Williams, Mark O Pilkington, Des Barry, Joe McNally, Stewart Home, Ken Bruen, Patrick McCabe, Ken Hollings, Daniel Bennett, Martyn Waites, Michael Ward and Jerry Skyes – and the vocal talents of Jon Glover, Timothy Bentinck, Jane Slavin and David Thorpe.
Tune in HERE

NEW WRITING:
CATHI ON BRIT NOIR 1947-65 IN
PUNK NOIR MAGAZINE

Originally commissioned by French journal Temps Noir, Cathi's pick of British Noir movies from 1947-65 begins with what came to be known as the 'Spiv Cycle' of movies and finishes in 1965 as the Angry Young men steal a march on British cinema with Bryan Forbes and Richard Attenborough's most unsettling collaboration. Taking in along the way the genius of Basil Dearden, J Lee Thompson, Carol Reed, Joseph Losey and many more, these are all films that made a big impact on Cathi's writing about crime fiction as social history and pop culture. Get the full scoop HERE

NEW PUBLICATIONS…

CATHI IN BUS FARE:
AN ANTHOLOGY ABOUT THE LONDON BUS

EDITED BY TRAVIS ELBOROUGH & JOE KERR
FEATURING: CHARLES DICKENS, WILL SELF, IAIN SINCLAR, VIRGINIA WOOFE, ELIZABETH WILSON, CATHI UNSWORTH
Not merely a vital component of the city’s infrastructure, buses are equally embedded in London's culture; written about, sung about, joked about, filmed, painted (and painted on), advertised, and celebrated in myriad ways. For the many thousands of people who have depended on them for a livelihood – drivers, conductors, cleaners, mechanics, inspectors – they have
created their own world, complete with a distinct language, with uniforms, with places, and with men and women of every imaginable culture and ethnicity.
This new collection aims to celebrate the unique relationship that Londoners have with their most important mode of transport, telling you all the things you never knew about London’s lifeblood and how it’s kept the capital moving for more than a century. Tourists take the tube – but real Londoners take the bus.
Every purchase supports the London Transport Museum’s charitable work. To order yours direct, go HERE

CATHI IN SPIRITUS SOHO BY ROBERT RUBBISH

Cathi was delighted to be asked by Soho artist ROBERT RUBBISH to contribute the forward to his new book SPIRITUS SOHO, a culmination of his project to salute the Capital's most notorious and decadent quarter before the wrecking ball takes all. Robert's beautiful artworks (The Three Ages of Derek Raymond shown above) draw on his deep knowledge of Soho's history and the outsiders who made the place: "always up or down but never on the level," as Keith Waterhouse so beautifully put it. The book was launched at The French House, in the Bermuda Triangle area of Soho between Gerry's and The Coach and Horses where so many souls have disappeared before. Here are Robert and Cathi at the launch:

You can pick up a copy of SPIRITUS SOHO – and a limited edition print if you are feeling flush - directly from The French if you get there fast enough. Or you can order the book, priced £25 from HERE More about Robert and his work HERE

NEW! Read Cathi's feature on the Trail of Helen Duncan at The Revisionist

One of the major plot strands of That Old Black Magic is the trail of Scottish medium Helen Duncan, the last woman to be prosected in this country for Witchcraft at a sensational Old Baily trial in 1944. How did a 17th century law get evoked to persecute a woman for such a crime in the middle of World War II – and perhaps more importantly, why? Read Cathi's take on this still-controversial case HERE

CATHI IN THE LIFE OF A SONG

Two of Cathi's columns from Financial Times' regular Saturday music column and podcast THE LIFE OF A SONG are included in the wonderful anthology of the same name, edited by DAVID CHEAL and JAN DALLEY. Fifty songs that have permeated the public consciousness are considered in their many differing guises – songs that have been born, reborn and sometimes hideously mangled on their journies through time and space. Contributing essays on the strange stories behind JOHN LEYON'S Johnny Remember Me and NANCY SINATRA and LEE HAZELWOOD's Some Velvet Morning, Cathi is in great company, including PETER ASPDEN, HELEN BROWN, BERNADETTE McNULTY and IAN McCAN, with subjects ranging  from Amazing Grace, Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground and Wade in the Water to Enter Sandman, Smells Like Teen Spirit and I Believe in Father Christmas…
Published by Brewers/Financial Times the book is in bookshops now
priced £12.99
For more information, please go HERE

CATHI IN DEADLIER: 100 OF THE BEST CRIME STORIES WRITTEN BY WOMEN
EDITED BY SOPHIE HANNAH

Cathi is included in the new anthology DEADLIER: 100 OF THE BEST CRIME STORIES WRITTEN BY WOMEN, Edited by that mistress of the field SOPHIE HANNAH. By strange coincidence, the title of Cathi's contribution is also that of a Lee Hazlewood song, TROUBLE IS A LONESOME TOWN and it sits alongside such diverse names as DAPHNE DU MAURIER, MARGARET ATWOOD and VAL McDERMID - just the thing to cuddle up with on those long, dark, winter evenings…
Published by Head of Zeus, DEADLIER is in bookshops now priced £25

IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY by Arthur La Bern 
London Books re-release of a classic London novel with an introduction by CATHI UNSWORTH

Cathi has been honoured to write the introduction for a new edition of Arthur La Bern's IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY  – the book from whence the 1947 Ealing classic film by Robert Hamer and starring Googie Withers came. Which is every bit as fantastic as its cinematic rendering. If you did Derek Raymond, awe awestruck by Alexander Baron and intoxicated by Patrick Hamilton, then Arthur La Bern is a writer you will want to know more about.   

Born into the Islington streets run by Darby Sabini and his gang, Arthur was a Fleet Street crime reporter and war correspondent who flew with the Fleet Air Arm in the Pacific during WWII. Many of his novels were adapted for the screen, including GOODBYE PICCADILLY, FAREWELL LEICESTER SQUARE, which became Alfred Hitchcock's equally notorious FRENZY – which Arthur hated. He lived high on the hog and then fell from that distance, sleeping rough on Brighton beach towards the end of his days. Every experience filtered through to his hauntingly evocative descriptions of wide boys, working girls, hardbitten hacks and the coppers that chase them down, capturing vistas of a lost London and bringing them vividly back to life. 

IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY is available from LONDON BOOKS website, price £11.99. You can order a copy and  find out more about other LONDON BOOKS titles HERE

Cathi in London Fictions on
Lynne Reid Banks' The L-Shaped Room

Cathi is honoured and delighted to be included in the new compendium LONDON FICTIONS, co-edited by JERRY WHITE and ANDREW WHITEHEAD and published by FIVE LEAVES on
18 April 2013.

Cathi chose The L-Shaped Room, discovered while researching her 2010 novel Bad Penny Blues. The book, and Bryan Forbes subsequent movie adaptation, vividly evoke the lost bedsitter land of West London in post-War, pre-swinging London.

From Child of the Jago to Brick Lane, London has always inspired novelists, seeking to present a sense of the city, whether real or imagined. Here, writers and historians take you through some of the captivating novels, past and present which depict London from East End boys to West End girls, bed-sit land to docklands, immigrants to emigrants, encompassing all of the diversity of human life.


To order from Amazon, please go HERE

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WHO PUT BELLA IN THE WYCH ELM?