Nick Barlay

Ive got Hooky Gear, I bought it in Prague last year, and I just couldnt get into it. It sits on my bookshelf still, do I need to give it another go then?

Try this paragraph for size: "20 min drive. 30 in the traffic and say f*** about the flatbed wha shed its scaffold on the Brent Cross flyover or the burst pipe round Kilburn High. An so on an so forth till Monicas neighbourhood. Round there all the churches is convertin. Nobody believe in nothin no more. Geezers swarmin all over them, roofers, lekkies, glaziers knockin out the swankholes for the up and comin. Next itll be the mosque an the synagogue. An after that theyll build phoney churches an mosques and synagogues just so they can convert them, just to keep all the geezers busy." Once you get over the language barrier it's great! Here we have the mindset of J, our burglar friend, we get his language and we get a laugh - the idea of building churches etc. in order to convert them for yuppies! Go for it!

Maybe the reason I gave it up in the first place was the struggle with the language.. if i think back, the narrator and a dreadlocked pal were legging it over a hedge from a burglary... it kept making me stumble whilst i worked out what he was saying all the time... the problem may well have been that on a day to day basis i was struggling with language all the time, in a cz english/english cz way, and just couldnt hack any more hard work. Youve convinced me to give it another go - I'll let you know how I get on.