1. Restless

Available for 27 days

London, 1958. 'I swore by Elvis and all the saints that this last teenage year of mine was going to be a real rave.' The 18-year-old narrator of Colin MacInnes's cult classic is determined to declare his independence from earlier generations as he roams London with his camera and a sharp eye for the stylish and the subversive. In the smoky jazz clubs of Soho, the coffee bars of Notting Hill and the cheap rooms of Pimlico, the young and the restless - the absolute beginners - are revolutionising youth culture and forging a new carefree lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Meanwhile the Teddy Boy gangs are staging internecine battles and a generation of Black immigrants is struggling to make a life in a hostile city. The definitive account of London life in the 1950s and what it means to be a teenager, this account of a young man's coming of age captures the spirit of a generation and the changing face of the city in the era of the first race riots and the lead-up to the Swinging Sixties. Read by Joel MacCormack. Abridged in five parts and produced by Sara Davies. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2014.