Book Review: Stranded in the Future, by Robyn Hitchcock (2026)

Stranded in the Future, published earlier this year, is Robyn Hitchcock’s second memoir, following 2024’s excellent 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left. Stranded in the Future picks up the story after the Day-Glo marvelousness of 1967 and takes the reader through the next decade of Hitchcock’s life. 

One of the main characters in Stranded in the Future, besides Robyn, is a reclusive rock star, referred to as both Mr. A during his rock star period, and Mr. B after he gave up the spotlight. It’s no shock to reveal that Mr. A/B is Syd Barrett, formerly of Pink Floyd. Hitchcock is a huge Syd Barrett fan, and he’s often covered Barrett’s solo compositions in concert. 

Syd Barrett is quite a legend in rock and roll circles. One of the founders of Pink Floyd, Barrett was a key artistic voice during their first album, 1967’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and then left the group in early 1968. Barrett released two solo albums, both in 1970, and then largely disappeared from public life and performing. Hitchcock was fascinated by Barrett, and a continuing theme of Stranded in the Future is Hitchcock’s near misses with encountering Barrett. 

The Robyn Hitchcock that we encounter in Stranded in the Future is a young man who wants to be a singer-songwriter. The book follows his maturation as an artist and the first recordings he makes with his band The Soft Boys. Hitchcock had a relatively long gestation period as a rock musician. His debut long-playing record was The Soft Boys’ first album, A Can of Bees, released in 1979, when Hitchcock was 26 years old. That’s not old by lifespan standards, but in terms of rock and roll, it’s on the later side. Syd Barrett had already been in and out of Pink Floyd, made his two solo albums, and was on the train to nowhere by the time he was 26. Paul McCartney had just started recording the White Album when he was 26. I could give a dozen more examples, but you get the point. 

Hitchcock is an excellent writer with a vibrant, impressionistic style of writing. There are great quotes throughout the book. One of my favorites was from Robyn’s father, the painter and novelist Raymond Hitchcock: “My father, however, was fond of saying that we were given speech in order to not communicate with each other.” (p.26) That’s food for thought.

Just as Robyn is always missing Syd Barrett, he also just misses connecting with Bob Dylan on a kibbutz in Israel in 1971. Crazy, man. Speaking of Dylan, there’s another type of near miss when Robyn buys Dylan’s new album Planet Waves. However, the record inside the Planet Waves sleeve is actually Brian Eno’s solo debut, Here Come the Warm Jets. “They were, briefly, label mates at that stage, and the record pressing plant had, in delicious error, put Eno albums in Dylan sleeves.” (p.118)

Robyn eventually forms a band called The Soft Boys, which is a fantastic name for a band. It’s a bit silly and non-threatening, especially during an era when testosterone reigned supreme in rock and punk. 

Stranded in the Future also covers Robyn’s romantic relationships, which are complex. His on-again, off-again relationship with “Ms. C” is an example of two people who are constantly being drawn towards each other, even though it doesn’t seem as though they like each other very much. 

Stranded in the Future is an interesting book, chronicling an often difficult time in Hitchcock’s life. I hope he writes a third volume; I’d be fascinated to read about his emergence as a solo artist in the 1980’s, and his success touring America. 

Book Review: Attack the Lusitania! by Raymond Hitchcock (1979)

Attack the Lusitania! is a historical novel written by Raymond Hitchcock. The British passenger liner RMS Lusitania was one of the fastest and most luxurious ships of its day. The Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine on May 7, 1915. The ship sank in just 18 minutes, and nearly 1,200 people lost their lives. Hitchcock’s novel, published in 1979, explores the possibility that the British government plotted to attack the Lusitania in an attempt to draw the United States into World War I. This is not as far-fetched an idea as you might think. The Admiralty took a lot of heat in 1915 for not adequately protecting the Lusitania, as the Germans were scaling up their submarine warfare. Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, was reeling from both the failure of the Gallipoli invasion, and the sinking of the Lusitania, and he was forced to resign his post less than three weeks after the Lusitania was sunk. Ever since 1915, there have been conspiracy theories that the British did not do enough to protect the Lusitania.  

For his novel, Hitchcock invented the character of Captain Gavin Tweedman, Director of Naval Intelligence. Tweedman is a colorful character, a racing devotee who lost his left leg in a car crash. Tweedman also hatches the plot for a British submarine, disguised as a German U-boat, to make the attack on the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland, as it heads for Liverpool. Tweedman does not want to sink the ocean liner, just merely damage it so it can limp back into port, and then blame the attack on the Germans, ensuring that the United States will enter the war.  

The plot obviously requires secrecy and subterfuge, and there’s a cast of colorful characters that Tweedman must manipulate for his plan to succeed. I won’t spoil any more of the plot but Attack the Lusitania! is a fun and engaging historical thriller. I’ve been intrigued by the Lusitania since I read Erik Larson’s 2015 book Dead Wake, a fascinating account of the liner’s final voyage.  

Apart from being fascinated by ships and shipwrecks, there’s another reason why I read Attack the Lusitania! Raymond Hitchcock’s son is the very talented singer and songwriter Robyn Hitchcock, who’s one of my favorite musicians. I’ve known for a while that Robyn’s father was a painter and a novelist, so when I found Attack the Lusitania! at an antique store, I had to get it. While reading Raymond’s novel, I’ve been listening to Robyn’s remixed version of his 1988 album Globe of Frogs. There’s a wonderful connection between the novel, about a terrible naval tragedy, and Robyn’s song “Luminous Rose,” with its visions of “drowned sailors and dead airmen.” Robyn sings “The sea is so much deeper than the grave,” a fitting epitaph for his father’s novel as well.  

Book Review: 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left a memoir by Robyn Hitchcock (2024)

The cover of Robyn Hitchcock's 2024 memoir 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

The signed bookplate inside my copy. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Robyn Hitchcock, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and all around groover.

The British singer, songwriter, and guitarist Robyn Hitchcock has always been a devotee of psychedelia, and in his new memoir 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left, Hitchcock takes us through the happenings of that year, musical and otherwise. Hitchcock turned 14 years old in March of 1967, but the narrative begins a year earlier, when Robyn entered Winchester College, a boarding school founded in 1382. 

It was during 1966 that Hitchcock discovered the music of an American singer and songwriter. “He seems to emphasize every word he sings—and there are many of them.” (p.30) It’s Bob Dylan, and the course of Robyn’s life is irrevocably altered. 

1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left is an evocation of that time in adolescence when, for some of us, music takes on an almost mystical import, and each passing month seems to bring about a further evolution of our personalities into a different self. 

Hitchcock describes the differences at Winchester between the “meatheads” and the “groovers”: “The meatheads are into sports, alcohol, talking about sex, and the Beach Boys. The groovers favor Beat poetry, jazz, and incense sticks.” Things shift when the Beach Boys release “Good Vibrations” and the groovers dig it. Robyn asks a groover friend, “The Beach Boys are for all these beerfucker types, you know—the meatheads—aren’t they?” The groover responds, “No, man, you’ve gotta dig it: the Beach Boys are cool now—this stuff is beautiful, man. It’s like jazz with voices, you know?” (p.59-60) 

Robyn’s family background was quite interesting. His father was Raymond Hitchcock, a painter and novelist, and his mother was Joyce Hitchcock, who studied history at Cambridge University, “where she eventually became one of the first generation of women to be allowed to graduate with an official degree.” (p.13) 

Hitchcock has some mixed feelings about his privileged education, writing “One of the main functions of private education in Britain is to stunt people emotionally and then send them out to run the country.” (p.96) 

It’s no surprise to anyone who knows Hitchcock’s lyrics that he is an astute observer, and he turns many memorable phrases throughout the book. One of my favorites was the way he describes the cover of the Incredible String Band’s album The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion: “The saturated joy of it, the intricacy: everything seems to be turning into something else when you look at it closely: which, for me, is what defines psychedelia.” (p.145) I also love the way Hitchcock describes the autumn of 1967: “The sunsets of 1967 are particularly vivid: flaming pink, orange, and purple silhouette the trees rising out of the white miasma.” (p.153) 

I’ve been a fan of Robyn Hitchcock’s music for a long time, so it was a delight to read 1967 and learn more about his background and how the music of the 1960’s affected him. I’m so glad that Robyn Hitchcock wrote this memoir, and it was a pleasure to read it. 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left is a fascinating glimpse into what makes Robyn Hitchcock tick, and how he developed his own unique artistic style. I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in 1960’s pop culture.