In Robin we find out more about Michael’s friend, Johnny Lord, an ardent beatnik, ready to shout loud and long about the things he believes in. In the late 1950s and early 1960s many young people styled themselves as either a Beatnik or a Teddy Boy. The term ‘beatnik’ was first used in America in 1958, as a derogatory label for the followers of the Beat Generation, people influenced by American novelist and poet, Jack Kerouac, among others.

^{Photo credit: Creative Commons – Lucien Carr, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs Beat Generation 1}