When Jesus Met Hippies: The Story and Legacy of the Jesus People Movement in the UK - Andrew Whitman

REVIEWER: Ali Hull 

BOOK: When Jesus Met Hippies: The Story and Legacy of the Jesus People Movement in the UK

(Malcolm Down publishing, 2023) 352pp, paperback, RRP £13.99 

This is a Marmite sort of book, I think, not because it isn’t well-written – it mainly is – but because Whitman writes in detail about a time and individuals who may not be of interest to those who weren’t there and didn’t know them. I didn’t realise it, though, when I started to read the book, but it is full of individuals I did know, and it covers a time that I can clearly remember – though the book brings back a lot of half-forgotten memories as well. And it fills in gaps in my knowledge. So if you were a Christian, in the UK, in the 1960s and 1970s onwards, and aware of the burgeoning charismatic movement of that time – then this book is definitely for you.  

It was an optimistic time. The Christian subculture was growing, with more books, more music, more events, more magazines and more names coming to the fore all the time. Much of it was influenced by America, but we had our own homegrown culture as well.  

The book actually sets out to show how the Jesus People movement in the US led to a similar movement over here, and how the UK version grew, who was involved, and so on. However, if you are not that interested in the US side of the story, the UK side has more than enough to hold your attention. At times, the book did read as though it had started life as a thesis and then had become a more popular book – although I don’t know if that was the case. And there are places where a more rigorous editing process would have been helpful. But these are small niggles. There isn’t enough of this kind of history around, and I don’t think most publishers are going to invest in it. So if these stories, of what God did and the lives that were changed, are going to survive, this is the kind of book that we need. 

Reviewer: Ali Hull is the Book Editor for Preach magazine, and has spent nearly thirty years working with words, as a writer, editor and writing coach.