Two's-Up is the new novel written by Kris Gray |
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In January 1971, after having his collar felt at the end of the previous year, the teenage Kris Gray heard his plans of becoming a master criminal crumble when the immortal words ‘take him down’ were uttered by the judge. That same judge had just told him that he would have to serve a term of six months to two years in a Borstal institution. With the words of failed IRA bomb maker, Brendan Behan’s ‘Borstal Boy’, ringing in his head he was dragged away from his fiancé to the dark dungeons of Wormwood Scrubs. Little did he know that he would end up on a farm in the heart of Huntingdonshire, brewing illicit rhubarb wine, entertaining the local old folk and finding his hand up a cow’s fanny, amongst other things, whilst learning how to get out in double quick time. Two’s Up is the often humorous and sometime sad memoires of a Borstal Boy in the early 1970’s who went on to almost be a rock star. Click on the title for more on:
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REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS with Kris Gray
Should you have met or watched the amiable, renowned bass player with those red shoes, from his work with The Edgar Broughton Band or his long-standing services with the Miller Anderson Band, you will be surprised at being presented with a tough reality smash about his prison term as a teenager: Far from portraying himself as Mr Cool, Gray starts by describing the literally punishing naivety that brought him in front of a judge. This is followed by the harsh introduction into the walls of the institution “Wormwood Scrubs” with its sometimes cruel, sometimes grotesque and often enough gray (!) prison routine. Later, the inmate luckily finds himself laboring away on a farm in the county of Huntingdonshire. You are certainly “inside” and suffer with Gray – none of his anecdotes seems worth the price of “admission”. Did Kris at least get to play in a jail combo. Fortunately he did, even getting a chance for gigs, for instance on a village green, „just like out of the Kinks song ´We Are The Village Green Preservation Society´“. Small mercies indeed.- Gripping! Uli Twelker - Good Times Magazine - Germany I’ve read the book “TWO’S UP” by Kris Gray, and although this is not the kind of book I would generally read, I actually liked it very much, it was written in an “earthy” way which literally is ‘down to earth’ and was funny, informative, sad, interesting too and has a story that one could follow through. It’s a real life story and just shows how life can evolve and get from almost “rags to riches” as it were, but that we have choices in life what and how to do things. Good or bad. John Rushton - Life Doctor author of 'Love Your Life' 'I've just read the first novel by musician and now author Kris Gray. His book took me into a world and the system I knew little about. Brilliantly funny, sometimes sad but also a good insight into the world of the Borstal boys - a real story about real people, couldn't put this book down and here's hoping for a follow up? Crime, Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll all in one great read. A must for anyone who wants to know just how souless the early '70's really were. Comparisons with Kris Gray's "TWO'S UP" (No not a sexual Cockney-ism) and the 70's cult classic "Scum" are probably inevitable. After all both are set in a bleak, broken and washed out 1970's London, and both deal with the country's then (one hopes) brutal Borstal system for young offenders. However that's where the similarities end. Gray's True Life tale of the ups and eventual downs of a misguided life of teenage drug crime is both witty and gritty. Gray's chatty style of delivery is perfect for recounting and re-creating this cautionary story of incarceration, and violent intimidation with a claustrophobic realism and a good sense of humor Basically if "Two's Up" had been up for grabs as a screen play back in 1977 (the year Scum was originally conceived) I'll wager an ounce of smuggled Old Holborn that the cinematic out come would have been very different. A Unputdownable page turner. TERRY RAWLINGS.
I think your book is not only very funny, but a stroll along memory lane as wel, right? | ||||||||||||