A talented off-beat journalist and social observer, Colin MacInnes is best known for his trilogy of London novels which includes
Absolute Beginners as well as
City of Spades and
Mr Love and Justice. He also wrote about the allied occupation of Germany in the aftermath of the Second World War, in
June in Her Spring and
England, Half English. He died of cancer in 1976. Since his death his best essays, fiction and journalism have been published in various collections.