We are proud to present the four books in Mick Norman’s Angel Chronicles: Angels from Hell, Angel Challenge, Guardian Angels and Angels on my Mind, in two omnibus editions. Often called The Last Heroes Quartet or The Angels Chronicles, we at Piccadilly Publishing have decided to put them under the colours of FALLEN ANGELS—thus making these classics of the 1970s Hells Angels’ culture available in electronic form for the very first time, with stunning artwork by Tony Masero.
The books were Mick Norman’s (or more precisely, Laurence James’) vision of the then future. Laurence was an editor at New English Library at a time when they were publishing biker pulp-fiction by the likes of Peter Cave and Alex R. Stuart. He was Richard Allen’s editor and dealt with some of the Jim Moffat skinhead books. On the back of these, Laurence decided to change tack—and sent in the manuscript of Angels from Hell anonymously to another editor. He stated that he only every thought of there being just the one book but NEL took up the option and Laurence went on to write three more.
Often called “trash fiction” or “low culture”, the Angel quartet actually sold over a quarter of a million copies, and has gained a cult fiction following. It was their combination of sex and violence, the anti-establishment theme of “us” against “them” which made these books a success at the time.
This fiction is not for the politically correct and is very much a product of its time. It is gritty and realistically brutal. The sex, drugs, violence and music references remain intact because it very much mirrors the attitude of the UK-based Hell’s Angels.
These novels are pure nostalgia, harking back to a time that many bikers of a certain age might identify with. Triumph, Norton, Harley-Davidson and Velocettes grace the pages.
We do not apologise for it.
Mike Stotter,
Editor