Autobiography

still couldn’t believe two men had been sent to
prison for publishing them. Hank Janson
quickly became my biggest seller; the latenight
shoppers sought out erotica, especially
those Janson books with the black and white
serrated price tag. My only regret is I didn’t
charge five shillings instead of three and
sixpence.
Call it what you like – one man would call it
erotica while another would call it porn – but it
was clearly what my customers wanted to
read. The so-called ‘dirty raincoat brigade’
didn’t exist, except maybe detective Columbo
on television and the odd undercover
policeman. The customers were just normal
working people dressed in their work clothes;
whether it was a suit, a shirt and tie or a
donkey jacket.
I only saw people in macs when it was raining,
and they were going into restaurants and
hotels as well as my bookshop. But the
expression will probably last forever,
perpetuated by the media and comedians like
the late Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. It is the
same sort of expression as ‘dirty magazines’
and ‘mucky books’ – where did those terms
come from?
I think it is a misnomer reflecting a complete
lack of understanding of the reality and the
facts. I can say that the smartest, most
elegantly dressed man about town was just as
capable of buying erotica as Dudley Moore in
his guise as a dirty old man. Nothing was more
pornographic than the Pete and Dud
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