The Sharper Word: A Mod Anthology Paperback – April 1, 2010

Its a cool collection of interviews, newstories, book excerpts, etc. Really concentrates more on peakcockish mods than hard mods. Definatley makes those early mods extremely fanatical.

As a mod, I found this a satisfying read, but it is not without its issues.First of all, it is a bit unfriendly to the non-mod reader - it could have done with some photographs of the fashion, for example.Secondly, like some of the other reviewers, it did tend to focus on the negatives of mod, with a lot of the writings focusing on drugs.Some of the fiction excerpts were a bit poorly-written as well.That said, it's pretty much the only book of its kind and one of few mod books. I would recommend it for mods, but not so much for others.(I think my mother views my subculture a bit less positively after reading this book...)

This collection of 31 excerpts from various works of music and cultural journalism, biography, and fiction seeks to shed light on the little-understood "mod" subculture. Hewitt has done well to seek out the relevant passages from a wide range of sources, although Richard Barnes' "Mods!", Nik Cohn's "Ball the Wall" and Johnathan Green's "Days in the Life: Voices from the English Underground 1961-1971" are each excerpted three times. The first-hand accounts of living the mod life are fairly uniform in their descriptions and as a whole tend to expose the mod subculture as a fairly empty narcissistic enterprise--albeit a sharp one. Only in "Ace Face" (and former Who crony) Pete Meaden's rambling 1978 NME interview is there any sense of a larger purpose, but then he comes across as a bit of a whacked-out dreamer compared to all the other sartorial hipsters. Still, worth reading if you're interested in the history of the mod subculture. It's a shame the publishers didn't devote any time or effort to the look of the book. From weak cover to atrocious typography, it exhibits none of the attention to detail that characterized the essence of mod style.

One of the finest books I have read in a long time, a very sharp look at the mod culture of which I was one, this book took me back to a time I had enjoyed and lived, I would recomend this book to any one who has followed the mod culture through all its rebirths over the last 40 years. If I had any critisism it would be a lack of photographs but this doesnt detract from the content of the book I have read it three times now, the first reading was accomplished in one sitting I could not put the book down.

a wonderful, richly detailed compendium of mod literature and philosophy by recognised experts. comes close to putting a finger on an elusive movement.

Excellent book full of many short articles on the Mods from the late 50s onwards. The only pity being that there are probably 100s of other articles gathering dust in old and out of print mags (local as well as national and music press) that surely could have been included as well to make the book a super comprehensive anthology.

Though some of the pieces included , scarcely warrant the "little masterpieces" epithet,this is nonetheless a handy compendium.Well known staples of the mod literary canon are juxtaposed with small press,self published and journal contributions ,making this small format,unillustrated volume,useful beyond the sum of its parts.

We bought this as a present for a fan of mods based on the good reviews on amazon. On flicking through before wrapping up, I was disappointed that it wasn't very attractive - it has a lot of text in quite a smallish font without being spaced out with pictures, that being said, the friend really enjoyed the book and said that it was a really good collection of writings. Definitely for you if you are a true enthusiast looking to deepen your knowledge, but you may be disappointed if you are after a coffee table book.

Great reference read

Great book thanks