Julian Maclaren-Ross at 100

Saturday 7th July will mark one hundred years since the birth of cult writer and Soho dandy Julian Maclaren-Ross (1912-64), whose work has attracted admirers as varied as Harold Pinter, Evelyn Waugh, Iain Sinclair, Graham Greene and Sarah Waters. Brought up on the French Riviera during the 1920s, his subsequent life encompassed fame and literary success as well as alcoholism, drug addiction, homelessness and a psychotic obsession with George Orwell’s glamorous widow. On the day before his centenary (Friday 6th July) at Westminster Reference Libary, Maclaren-Ross’s biographer Paul Willetts and writer and stand-up comedienne Virginia Ironside will discuss his life and work; they will also be presenting rarely seen footage of Maclaren-Ross and friends talking about the long lost world of Soho bohemia. The event will start at 6.30pm and is FREE. I'll probably be introducing it. My favourite book by Maclaren-Ross is Memoirs of the Forties, especially his account of meeting Graham Greene at his house on Clapham Common.