Novel ‘The World Belongs to Jane & Me’ has shades of Adrian Street
A young Welshman, Johnny “The Kid” Arnold, seeks an escape from a life in the coal mines and sees wrestling as his way out in this immersive noir set in early 1960s London. With the help of “Flash” Nicky Nash, a mate of Johnny’s with connections, a timely vacancy in the big-time London wrestling promotion, Hammerstone Promotions, and no small amount of naive, bull-headed determination, Johnny dives headfirst into the world of professional wrestling.
But not so fast! Johnny’s got a girl, Jane. Marriage is imminent, as is parenthood. Jane’s expecting. Did I mention Johnny’s flat broke? Following a bizarre encounter in an alley and a swing at a copper, Johnny’s pinched! Is Johnny’s dream cut short before it really begins? Of course not, this is book one of a planned trilogy; it can’t go sideways that quickly, but Johnny certainly walks a bumpy, brutal and winding road.
Intrigued? It is from a novel by A.D. Stranik, released in November 2024 on Amazon.
From the cover blurb, The World Belongs to Jane & Me—Part #1: 1963 is the first of a trilogy of Brit-Grit crime novels inspired by “Exotic” Adrian Street and “the golden age of British wrestling of the 60s and 70s.”
More specifically, Part 1 is very much inspired by Street’s third and fourth books, So Many Ways to Hurt You and Sadist in Sequins, which see Adrian’s rise to prominence in the British 1960s wrestling scene and “candid photography” (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Say no more!).
Having recently taken the plunge into Street’s seven-volume autobiography, a lot of the world of Johnny Arnold is very familiar; the names changed to protect the not-so-innocent. But Street’s work is no prerequisite for the prospective reader as the story stands very much on its own and carries you along at a brisk pace.
Not being familiar, myself, with British noir of the ’60s beyond The Italian Job, Stranik’s characters and pacing remind me of Guy Ritchie’s earlier films, Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch in their overall vibe, and there are pop songs of the era helpfully name dropped every so often to supply an implied soundtrack; that makes sense since Adrian David Stranik is a singer/songwriter with ties to bands like The Silver Brazilians, The Broadway Twisters.
I enjoyed The World Belongs to Jane & Me and look forward to the next. It would probably make a really fun limited-run television series where the dialogue, visuals and soundtrack could all come together at once.
Oh, and as with Adrian Street’s books, this is maybe not for younger audiences.
RELATED LINKS
- Buy The World Belongs to Jane & Me: Part 1 1963 at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca
- Exotic Adrian Street story archive
- SlamWrestling Master Book List
