Mockers - Will Grimsey

Mockers is a nostalgic love story that explores teenage passions and societal pressures in the sixties. Although the story begins and concludes in late 2024, Mockers is a fictional novel set in North London and Hertfordshire, in post-war Britain between 1963 and 1966. It reflects a period when teenagers born in the 1940s and early 1950s felt separated from those who had been involved in the Second World War. In the early 1960s, this disconnect led to the development of a counterculture, expressed in popular music, fashion, and rebellion. At the heart of that culture were two groups of teenagers: Mods and Rockers. The story centres around a love triangle between a young, ambitious girl, Judy, who falls in love with a Rocker, Jimmy, and then, after an interlude in Ireland, falls in love with a Mod, Terry. Some very strong messages and issues of the time are highlighted, particularly relating to education, ambition, opportunities, society and female emancipation after the Second World War. But essentially, it's about Mods and Rockers; two wheels, speed, testosterone, aggression, music and the fashion that connected young people experiencing freedom and rebellion. It marked an era that would dramatically shape the second half of the 20th century in the UK.