Teddy Boys

Post-War Britain and the First Youth Revolution: A Sunday Times Book of the Week

Max Décharné

• Publisher: Profile Books
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN:
  9781782830375
• Topic: Médias et arts de la scène
• Subtopic: Musique pop

'Enormously enjoyable' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

Excellent ... illuminates a fascinating and still under-explored period in British youth culture and social history' Jon Savage, New Statesman

With their draped suits, suede creepers and immaculately greased hair, the Teddy Boys defined a new era for a generation of teenagers raised on a diet of drab clothes, Blitz playgrounds and tinned dinners.

From the Edwardian origins of their fashion to the tabloid fears of delinquency, drunkenness and disorder, the story of the Teds throws a fascinating light on a British society that was still reeling from the Second World War. In the 1950s, working-class teenagers found a way of asserting themselves in how they dressed, spoke and socialised on the street. When people saw Teds, they stepped aside.

Musician and author Max Décharné traces the rise of the Teds and the shockwave they sent through post-war Britain, from the rise of rock 'n' roll to the Notting Hill race riots. Full of fascinating insight, deftly sketching the milieu of Elvis Presley and Derek Bentley, Billy Fury and Oswald Mosley, Teddy Boys is the story of Britain's first youth counterculture.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction – Don’t Fear the Creeper
• 1. Drape Expectations
• 2. Just Like Eddie
• 3. I’m Not a Juvenile Delinquent
• 4. Common Assault
• 5. We Are the Teds
• 6. The Beat! The Beat! The Beat!
• 7. Public Enemy Number One
• 8. On the Town
• 9. We’re Gonna Teach You to Rock
• 10. Through the Looking Glass
• 11. A Drip in a Drainpipe
• 12. Knives in West Eleven
• Conclusion – This Old Gang of Mine
• Notes
• Acknowledgements
• Picture Credits
• Index
• Image Section