Make Me Smile: The Soul of John Deakin
Pariah Genius by Iain Sinclair (Cheerio Publishing, 2024)
It is not really a biography or a work of fiction but more of an appreciation for the presence of photographer John Deakin, the image maker of Soho London, or perhaps the soul of Soho. Iain Sinclair works magic on his old neighborhood and the Francis Bacon world. These real figures, novels, and cinema came from the 1950s Soho. Everything connects. I think that to enjoy this book, one has to be a reader like me, who is obsessed with the imagery of Soho London and all its citizens, cinema, and literature.
Pariah Genius is labeled fiction, but it’s Sinclair’s journey into the memory of Soho life of the 1950s, and it reads like a message from the Present sent to the Past. For most, Francis Bacon would be the guide to this world, but in truth, the photographer John Deakin documented this world in such a manner that the images are thrown onto the studio floor. Bacon claimed to have hired him not because he was a great photographer but out of pity. A bitchy response to Deakin’s touch on the lives of that era in that particular part of London. Deakin seemed to be unlike an insect in every bit of literature I have read about those years. Perhaps he was naturally talented, but he didn’t care much about it or had higher goals than the current Soho nightlife. The Homosexual coded landscape was an exotic nightclub or bar of endless drinking and merriment but with touches of acid and poison thrown into the mix.
Pariah Genius is also an excellent reference guide to Soho literature and films, such as the books by Colin MacInnes, Patrick Hamilton, and Julian MacLaren-Ross, the Baudelaire of London, and films like the obscure The Small World of Sammy Lee by Ken Hughes, starring Anthony Newley. Soho is 1 square mile, yet this area of London inspired many and developed its own culture that is still felt today. Sinclair is the master of the British version of Psychogeography, which was started by the French Letterist International and Situationist International. Pariah Genius fits into that groove of thought and action. Along with Bacon and Deakin (who are the underbelly of this region), there are painters Lucian Freud, Michael Andrews, and Frank Auerbach. These are some of my favorite painters, and I also adore the literature that came out of this era in Soho. Long live the boundaries of Oxford Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, Charing Cross Road, and Regent Street. Their hangout, The Colony Room Club, lives on in this book and the collective memory of those who wished they were there.
Thanks for the heads up on this book. I share your fascination for (and envy of) this geographic hotbed. While on work gigs to London, I loved trolling the Charing Cross bookstalls, Oxford Street shopping and all the pubs in that part of town. In addition to the definitive Bacon bio by Stevens/Swan an earlier one, Bacon, His Life and Violent Times (Andrew Sinclair) is very good, and not to miss are Bacon’s interviews with David Sylvester, The Brutality of Fact. The two volume bio of Lucian Freud by William Feaver is beyond thorough in exploring this world. The diaries of Cecil Beaton are a must read for their catty gossip about all the players. The perfect companion book would be the photographer David Bailey’s Birth of the Cool .. he shot everyone. Soundtrack? The early Stones and anything by rhe Yardbirds.