YES WE HAVE NO BANANAS

by Nik Cohn

(Long-term commentator on the alternative and strange, Nik Cohn has an empathy with outcasts and exiles that makes his book of adventures in other England powerful and moving. In the company of the wired and the entranced, he goes to pubs in Toxteth and meetings of Odin-worshippers and just listens to people talking. This is not Cool Britannia and it is not a New Britain for New Labour--Cohn talks to communities of the marginalised whose sense of the way things works is entirely at odds with the squeaky clean. He talks to Asians who came here to work and find themselves hated by their white neighbours and unable quite to deal with sons and daughters whose version of a culture of their own draws on those bits of Asian culture they find austere or too wild and on a Britishness that has little to do with traditional ideas of work. He talks to embittered West Indians and only partially reformed Nazis--and to evicted squatters and dispossessed miners. Much of this book appeared as columns in the Guardian, but they are more permanent than that might imply; an angry portrait of a Republic of the excluded)

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, British Literature

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Cohn is considered by some critics to be a father of rock criticism, thanks to his time on The Observer's early rock column entitled The Brief and his first major book Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom, first published in 1969. Cohn has since published articles, novels and music books regularly.

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nik Cohn is one of those shadowy figures of British literature/rock n' roll. King Mod one time (and when is a mod ever stop being a Mod?) - he is basically a journalist who wrote novels, history of rock n' roll, as well as travel. "Yes We Have No" is a travel book on the U.K. I have to imagine that this book is the essential read on contemporary England - or at least in 1999. He interviews every type of citizen that was possible at the time - and the interesting thing is you get very little information on him, yet his character is very much in the text. He's a superb writer. Well worth the hunt to find all his titles.

[Phil Overeem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cohn is always hard-hitting, and though this is a 1999 copyright, I can't imagine life any easier now on the U. K. denizens he follows here.

[Janey · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read this in 2000, enjoyed it more the 2nd time round. Would be fascinating if he could do another road trip now, 'Yes We Have No' Brexit/post Covid version for 2025

[Nick Sweeney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nik Cohn travels around Britain in its post Cool-Britannia guise and seeks out its 'ordinary' people, which includes its one-time and wannabe criminal class, a people permanently in search of a buzz and also permanently disgruntled. Lots of rants and homespun philosophy from them, then, often taken at face value by the author (and sometimes, it must be said, making sense). Nik Cohn makes no attempts at being objective, which is fine by me - he's not pretending it's journalism - and adopts a narrative full of hyperbole to relate his journeys.

An enjoyable book if picked up from time-to-time, which is the way I've been reading it. And another charity shop buy - I don't think I'd have bought it new, somehow - for which I'm grateful. Once again the chaos of the random browse has got me a book I'd have otherwise never heard of.

Nik Cohn's name has always been familiar to me as, with artist Guy Peelhart, he brought out a book in the 1970s called Rock Dreams, full of paintings of rock stars showing their various fortunes; his style in that was much the same, though much more economical. He is an interesting figure in his own right, and I think a biography of him would make a great read... though wouldn't be as much fun, I sense, as an autobiography.

[Darcie K · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think Shaw said that America and England are two countries separated by a common language. In this case (I hate to say it), he's right. Nik Cohn's a great writer, but there's just too much about these tales that I didn't understand.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

kind of liked this at first but in the end it was more chore than fun. he's probably a good writer but i just didn't care about any of the characters he meets and totally lost interest in where he was going towards the end. ended up not reading the last 50 pages. life's too short.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

England is in decline and has been for some time.

[Issy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh man, why do I feel like I'm totally betraying this author. The thing is I like this author a lot, there is just something missing in the fluidity of this book.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminds me of living in England.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing travelogue of a tour around "alternative" England, including travellers' camps, National Front members, witches and an Indian boxer. Promised much more than it delivered.