Bloomsbury Home
Description
A fascinating glimpse into 1980s Soho by leading journalist and writer Christopher Howse.
In the 1980s Daniel Farson published Soho in the Fifties. This memoir is a sequel from the Eighties, a decade that saw the brilliant flowering of a daily tragi-comedy enacted in pubs like the Coach and Horses or the French and in drinking clubs like the Colony Room.
These were places of constant conversation and regular rows fuelled by alcohol. The cast was more improbable than any soap opera. Some were widely known – Jeffrey Bernard, Francis Bacon, Tom Baker or John Hurt. Just as important were the character actors: the Village Postmistress, the Red Baron, Granny Smith. The bite came from the underlying tragedy: lost spouses, lost jobs, pennilessness, homelessness and death.
Christopher Howse recaptures the lost Soho he once knew as home, its cellar cafés and butchers' shops, its villains and its generosity. While it lasted, time in those smoky rooms always seemed to be half past ten, not long to closing time. As the author relates, he never laughed so much as he did in Soho in the Eighties.
Table of Contents
1 The Coach - and Horses
2 The Trap
3 Low Life
4 The Office
5 The French
6 Jeffery's Coat
7 Marsh
8 The Asphalt Carpet
9 A Cabinet of Curiosities
10 The Parish
11 Baby Face Scarlatti
12 The Unknown Norman
13 A Farson Attack
14 Bank Holiday Bacon
15 Hard Words
16 Heath
17 Soho Sickness
18 Private Eye
19 The Enigma Richard Ingrams
20 The Lavatory Table
21 Bruce
22 The Red Baron
23 Oliver
24 A Painter Upstairs
25 The Last Lamplighter
Envoi
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Index
Product details
| Published | 06 Sep 2018 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 288 |
| ISBN | 9781472914811 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Continuum |
| Illustrations | 1 x 8pp plate section and maps |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Related Titles
