Back in the early ‘90s in London, there was a twenty-something editor at Allen and Unwin named Jake Lingwood. Lingwood had started a zine in high school and was excited by the burgeoning club scene happening in the city, and so he got it in his head to commission a series of novel-length documentations that would allow outsiders a peak into this world. Calling the series Backstreets, the next task at hand was finding writers that would be a good fit for the series. Two names that he came across where a couple of youngsters named Andrew Green and Eddie Otchere, better known as Two Fingas and James T. Kirk. The two had written film reviews for Touch magazine, and Otchere had also taken to photography, even shooting photos for an earlier Backstreet title. Lingwood got it in his head that these two were the right choice to write a Drum and Bass entry for his series, even though they had never written anything over than a couple thousand words before. They jumped on the opportunity, and soon Junglist was born. While not a smash success when it was published in 1995, the book became something of a cult classic for capturing the Jungle scene in London, but also giving voice to multicultural London. A short while after its publication, much of its first run had to be destroyed after MC 5ive-0 threatened to sue them for using a photo of him on the cover without his permission. As Otchere pursued a career in photography and Green went into television direction, it seemed like this book might be lost to time. That is, until 2021, when Repeater got a hold of it and reprinted the novel for a whole generation to rediscover.

Junglist was always meant to be something of a pulp novel, and to a certain extent, that’s what Two Fingas and James T. Kirk are giving us, but it inadvertently turns into something more as they capture this slice of life. That’s because by writing about four young Black men from South London that are Jungle enthusiasts in the mid ‘90s, they captured a moment in time and gave voice to a new generation of London that hadn’t seen itself represented in literature until now. Now, granted, this book is not a masterpiece. It’s a short novel written by two first-time novelists for a press that wasn’t interested in making high art – they just wanted something accessible and easy to read that would give you a glimpse into this new and exciting scene within the city. So yes, the book could benefit from further character development and fine tuning some plot points to help it reach that next level, but there is still plenty to appreciate and enjoy here to make this a book with preserving. Jungle is typically presented these days as a short-lived fad that was a blip on the radar in the ‘90s, but Two Fingas and Kirk really make the case for further examination in Junglist. For one, this wasn’t just about a couple of records with crazy drum patterns to them – it was a lived in culture that was as much about the social experience of staying out all night dancing in the clubs and hanging with your friends as you were all experiencing something exciting and new. Also, Two Fingas and Kirk do a great job of not just presenting Jungle in a vacuum. There are elements of house and hip hop and dancehall, and not just musically, and as you make your way through the book you see how these young men navigate their cultural and musical heritage and apply it to this new scene. More than anything, though, this is a book about friendship and the bonding of young men that don’t look or feel like old London, and they help each other and piss each other off as they figure out where they might fit in a new version of London. It might be a little crass at times, but for the majority of the book our two authors demonstrate an ability to really put their readers into the shoes of their characters and walk you through this specific time and place.

Shout out to Repeater Books for saving Junglist and allowing a new generation of readers a chance to discover it. It’s an extremely dated book in the best way possible, transporting you to a very specific time and place that deserves more examination.