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.
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.
Hello Jim, I recommend London Classics, which publishes a lot of Soho London fiction. Here is there website, and they never disappoint me!
https://www.london-books.co.uk/london-classics