
Luke Batterham
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Senior Valuer
MacINNES ON CITY OF SPADES, the first of his well-known London trilogy (followed by Absolute Beginners): "You are absolutely right to say the book hasn't a 3rd dimension: i.e., an existence in depth. What follow are not excuses, but explanations. 1. The material is so totally unfamiliar to most readers, a lot of the action would have been incomprehensible without a lot of stage-props and scenery. 2. I wanted to portray the Spade world in a descriptive way - tell them what is. 3. June in her Spring was not a profound book, but I was trying to work that way. Result: hardly any reviews, & total financial failure. If I didn't come up with something more likely to succeed, I don't think the publishers would have looked at me a third time.... Therefore it is a picaresque book, only, which only hints at its themes, & does not realize them. I think I'm in the position of saying I aimed at that, don't, at this stage, regret not having aimed deeper, & achieved what I aimed at".