Further Events for 2025

 

I'm busier with events this year than I have been since the end of COVID. Fortunately I'm not working on a book at the moment.

Mansion of Gloom will be available to buy at all of them.

AUGUST

Sunday 10 An Alien in London William Burroughs walk for the Sohemian Society. With Bill Redwood and Jim Pennington.
Some tickets still available here. Starts outside Westminster Reference Library WC2H 7HP

Sunday 31 Talk (around 4pm) on Netherwood guesthouse and Aleister Crowley at The Mint House Pevensey, East Sussex. Information here.

SEPTEMBER

Decadent London walk for the Sohemian Society. I'VE DECIDED TO POSTPONE THIS UNTIL NEXT SPRING

OCTOBER

Thursday 9   Decadent London online talk for the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art and Unnatural History. Hosted by Edward Parnell.

Tuesday 14 October Lecture for the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. Subject probably Horror on the London Underground. To be held in London, at the Horse Hospital.  RIP Roger Burton.

Thursday 30   Talk about the life and art of James Abbot McNeill Whistler for the Salon for the City. London Horse Hospital.

DECEMBER

Sunday 7 Goth Weekend Talk about Mansion of Gloom with Dr Emma Liggins at Guy's Hospital Chapel.

Thursday 11   A coffee house related talk for the London borough of Islington.

Many of the above are subject to confirmation so please check beforehand.

More Events

Another online talk for the Viktor Wynd Cabinet of Curiosities has been arranged for the evening of Thursday 9 October. The subject will be Decadent London, a profile of the city in the 1890s.

More details and booking here

The Whistler walk for the Sohemian Society on Sunday 8 June has sold out.

Copies of my latest book Mansion of Gloom: The Unsettling Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher can be purchased here.

Further events to promote the book are in the pipeline.

Upcoming gigs:

Jazz Hastings at East Hastings Sea Angling Association: Byron Wallen's Four Corners (great musicians including brilliant Rob Luft on guitar and Rod Youngs on drums. See here

I was intending to see Throwing Muses in Hastings last night but the gig has been rescheduled owing to Kristin Hersh losing here voice. See here

Lost Crowns at Alphabet Brighton see here

Whistler Walk in June

 

I'm leading a walk about James Abbot McNeil Whistler, his art, friends and enemies, around the riverside area of Chelsea for The Sohemians on Sunday 8 June meeting at 2.20pm outside Chelsea Old Church on Chelsea Embankment.

More information and ticket booking here. 

Limited places so book early. It will take 90 to 120 minutes and involve a fair amount of walking. Hope to finish at a pub for those interested.

Barry Humphries Sale at Christie's

While in London last week I popped into Christie's to see the exhibition devoted to the incredible collection of the late Barry Humphries prior to going for auction on 13 February.

See here for Christie's sale.

What a treasure trove for the decadent and symbolist enthusiast:

a small work by Fernand Khnopff, many paintings by Charles Conder, a letter from Beardsley, many signed editions of Oscar Wilde, rare books including several by Aleister Crowley (Diary of a Drug Fiend with dust jacket), Bodley Head books with sumptuous covers, first yellow 1897 edition of Dracula, as well as Dame Edna Everage dresses (including the Munch Scream dress) and glasses. 

Apparently I bought the very last catalogue (sorry). Not everything was extravagantly priced, so it might be worth bidding for some items, although I imagine they will net much more than their estimated prices.  

Mansion of Gloom and Other Events in 2025

 

In addition to Mansion of Gloom talks listed in previous posts there will be a talk to the Dracula Society on Saturday 26 April at The Barley Mow pub in Horseferry Road, London.

Booking details to follow. 

Also an online talk for the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities on Thursday 10 April.

See here and book here.

Sohemians talk at the Fitzroy Tavern to be confirmed.

I've also agreed to do three walks in London over the summer on Decadent London, Whistler in Chelsea and William Burroughs in London (the last with Bill Redwood and Jim Pennington).

Booking details to follow.

There may be a reprint of Decadent London this year, time and money allowing.

There's also the Electric Palace Hastings film event with two versions of The Fall of the House of Usher on Sunday 19 January. Book here. THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT.

Illustrated talk about Mansion of Gloom at Westminster Reference Library (about 15 tickets left at time of writing). This event will probably sell out soon.

Book here. 

I'm also organising some non-Mansion-of-Gloom events featuring other guest speakers that I hope will prove popular. Details to follow shortly.

Mansion of Gloom is now available from Treadwell's Books in London.

Online purchases through The Big Cartel.

John Richardson

I've just learned of the death of John Richardson in May. Not to be confused with the biographer of Picasso, he was the founder of Historical Publications who published so many interesting books on parts of London and aspects of the capital's history. 

Four of these books: Subterranean City, London's Coffeehouses Folklore of London and Decadent London (first edition) were by me. I will be eternally grateful to John for getting in touch after reading an article (the first!) I wrote and having the confidence to ask me to write Subterranean City. I had never written a book before and this one took a lot of research. The book did extremely well (John printed a revised and expanded edition in 2010) and I was pretty much allowed to choose the subjects of my next couple of books. I was also impressed by the amount of freedom given regarding illustrations and cover etc. 

John was a lovely man who was fascinated by local history, particularly of Camden - he wrote a number of books himself and supported many local projects and enterprises. He wound up HP a few years ago and retired to Whitstable, where I visited him a couple of times. On one occasion he gave me the rights to all my work to publish myself and I duly republished Decadent London in a larger revised and updated paperback edition under my imprint Accumulator Books (which I may reprint this year).  My thoughts go out to his wife Helen and his children.

2023

 

Happy New Year. 

My year got off to a good start yesterday when I noticed on Facebook a blog review of favourite books of the year that included my own Decadent London. My sincere thanks to the blogger - these things make you feel that you're not wasting your time. You can find it here.

Work on my next book continues slowly but surely. I would like to be more productive as a publisher this year but we'll have to wait and see. I have to admire the workload of this publisher.

Reading some academic articles online I became interested in the work of the religious studies scholar Carole Cusack, who has written about invented religions. I listened to a couple of podcasts she's been involved with:

The Religious Studies Project here. Also an interesting discussion on Gurdjieff.

Invented Religions here.

Also an article on occultural bricolage and popular culture here.

Jeremy Harte is an excellent speaker and has written about many aspects of folklore. His latest book on devilish folklore will be on my reading list this year. Guardian review here. Magonia review here.

Three gigs for this year: 

April 2 Steve Hillage Band Brighton Concorde 2

April 4 Matt Ridley Hastings Jazz Club

June 20 Yes Hammersmith Apollo Definitely my last time seeing the much-depleted Yes, but have to go as they are playing my favourite of their albums: Relayer.

Strychnine

 

One of the books I took along to read in our Devon holiday cottage last week was In Love With Hell by William Palmer, a series of short biographies of modern writers who were very heavy drinkers or alcoholics. The usual suspects are present and correct: Patrick Hamilton, John Cheever, Dylan Thomas, Kingsley Amis  etc. The chapter on Malcolm Lowry (see earlier post) contained some information that shed light on a passage that I often include in my talks on Decadent London.

In a letter from July 1894 dipsomaniac decadent poet Ernest Dowson wrote about a journey to alcoholic oblivion with his friend the actor Charles Goodhart: 

'Goodie and I met in the evening, he had a charming man with him, a twenty-ton opium eater, who had run away with his cousin and is now to marry her. We met at 7 and consumed 4 absinthes apiece in the Cock till 9 [in Shaftesbury Avenue - demolished]. We then went and ate some kidneys- after which two absinthes apiece at the Crown [now a KFC in Charing Cross Road]. After which, one absinthe apiece at Goodie's club. Total 7 absinthes. These had seriously affected us - but made little impression on the opium eater. He took us back to the Temple in a cab. This morning Goodie and I were twitching visibly. I feel rather indisposed; and in fact we decided that our grief is now sufficiently drowned, and we must spend a few days on nothing stronger than lemonade and strychnine.'

I had assumed the 'lemonade and strychnine' was a joke, but it turns out that 'suitably diluted, strychnine was in the past given as a stimulant to patients suffering from the palsy from lead poisoning, beriberi, and the shakes induced by alcoholism' [William Palmer, In Love With Hell: Drink in the Lives and Work of Eleven Writers p.82] In Lowry's masterpiece Under The Volcano, based on one day, the Consul's breakfast consists of a bottle half-full of Johnny Walker and a glass of strychnine mixture. Later he mistakenly takes a second draft of the strychnine mixture and passes out. Needless to say, don't try this at home. 

For a scientific overview see here.

Also immortalised in 1965 by The Sonics (and later covered by The Fall) here

'Some folks Like water, Some folks like wine, but I like the taste, of straight strychnine.'

 

To Keep the Ball Rolling

Almost all copies of Netherwood, Secret Tunnels of England and Decadent London have now sold and decisions will have to made about any future Accumulator Press projects or reprints in the light of our 'cost of living crisis' - what a damning phrase that is.

I'm much more aware of my general health these days and don't want to take on a great deal of work. Having said that I'm still working on what I hope will be another non-fiction book, Gothic in nature, that will be published next year and I may do various talks and walks, but probably not till 2023. To promote the book I am planning an event that will feature a talk from me, films and live music, I hope an improvised soundtrack to a silent film (I've been checking out some musicians for this) to be held in quite a large venue in St Leonards. 

On the music front the following are lined up:

Hatis Noit   Church of St John Bethnal Green, London 25 August

Alabaster DePlume   Marina Fountain, St Leonards 15 September (not sure about this one)

Steve Hackett   De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill 17 September - 50 years since Foxtrot was released

The Bug Club   The Piper St Leonards 29 October   

Emma Rawicz Quintet   Hastings Jazz Club 6 December. A star-studded band assembled.

In Brighton on Sunday 21 August there will be various celebrations marking the 150th birthday of the great Aubrey Beardsley. I hope to be there in the afternoon and evening and may check out the bar called The Yellow Book.

See here.

Aleister Crowley Talk at Electro Studios

 

As part of the Silverhill Press Presents events on 21 May I shall be promoting Accumulator Press and giving a short presentation on the book Netherwood: Last Resort of Aleister Crowley.

The few remaining Accumulator Press books that I have will be on sale: Decadent London, Netherwood, Secret Tunnels of England and there will be the opportunity to crowdfund/pre-order my next book Mansion of Gloom.

Accumulator Press on Big Cartel here

Electro Studios St Leonards on Sea 11-7.

The illustrated Crowley at Netherwood talk will begin at 1pm 

A Talk in St Leonards on Aleister Crowley at Netherwood

 

A Virtual Whistler Talk

I shall be putting a tentative toe into the waters of virtual talks next month. I was originally supposed to be delivering a talk on Whistler at Chelsea Town Hall (a handsome historic venue in the heart of the area where he lived for most of his life) a few weeks ago, but coronavirus put a spanner in the works and it never happened.

Now I've agreed to deliver it instead through Teams on 14 July. The advantage is that anyone anywhere (with internet access) can tune in, the disadvantage that you lose the atmosphere of the venue and the opportunity to sell and sign books afterwards (the latter quite a big disadvantage as many of my book sales are at talks, where I sell them for less than you pay online).

It's not something I want to pursue in a big way, but I'm willing to see how it goes this once. I was also planning to do a guided walk around Chelsea to supplement the walk in the summer, but it looks unlikely that that will happen this year.

Register for FREE through Eventbrite here.

Decadent Lockdown

There has been a significant increase in viewings of various blog posts from the Antonine Itineraries recently. It's always interesting to see which ones attract the most interest, often not the ones that I would have thought would be popular - also posts I thought would gain attention have hardly been viewed - I imagine this is not unusual.

Book orders have returned to pre-lockdown levels. As some copies are running low, I am having to consider future publications and priorities. Post is understandably slower that usual, but everything has arrived at its destination so far.

One unfortunate consequence of the lockdown for me was that Tate Britain bought a large number of copies of Decadent London (with the expectation that they would order more) to coincide with the major Aubrey Beardsley show, which then closed after a couple of weeks, together with the rest of the UK's museums and galleries. Fortunately, I did have a chance to visit the exhibition in the first week and really enjoyed it - I've no idea whether it will be extended when the Tate reopens. You can visit remotely here.

Some recent decadent links:

A Dandy's Guide to Decadent Isolation here

Peter Wollen on Dandyism, Decadence and Death in Performance here

A repost of Saxon Henry's A Decadently Yellow London here

Book Orders

Book orders through the Big Cartel are still being taken and all three books are available.  Secret Tunnels of England is now down to 12 copies and I shall have to take it off the site in the next few days. I am considering a reprint although, owing to the high price for printing the hardback edition (after five years it has only just covered production costs), it will have to be a paperback -probably the same style as Decadent London (with French flaps).

I've been thinking about offering them as e-books, but I still personally prefer physical paper books - the costs of typesetting, design and printing however make this an expensive business at a time when people's finances are increasingly uncertain. One good thing about e-books is I don't have to lug them across London in a suitcase to talks!

See here.

Understandably, there have been no orders for the last month or so, although they have resumed this week, which is a good sign. Readers in the USA are particularly keen.

I sincerely hope that, after the lockdown eases, the independent book shop network will have survived. Above photograph taken in early March of the front window at Gay's The Word in London.

Decadent London News

News about the revised and expanded edition of Decadent London.

It's now stocked by the following bookshops:

Treadwells

Watkins

Gay's The Word

The Brick Lane Bookshop

Tate Britain will be stocking Decadent London in their bookshop. As there is a major Aubrey Beardsley exhibition about to open this is wonderful news and I would hope that sales will be good if the book is prominently displayed.

It's the largest exhibition of Aubrey Beardsley drawings for 50 years and runs from 4 March to 25 May.  As well as his own distinctive works the exhibition includes artworks that were important inspirations for him including those by Edward Burne-Jones and Gustave Moreau.

More about the Beardsley show here.

I'm doing some talks about Decadent London:

Thursday 20 February   Treadwells Bookshop here

Thursday 9 April City of Westminster Archives Centre (details to follow)

Also a non-decadent talk about underground folklore of England

Thursday 27 February Kensington Central Library here (part of Fantasy February)

2020 Talks

Three talks have been confirmed this year, with more in the pipeline.

NEW ADDITION: DECADENT LONDON at TREADWELLS BOOKSHOP
Thursday 20 February 7.30 pm: see their website for details. HERE

Thursday 27 February SECRET TUNNELS: FOLKLORE OF UNDERGROUND ENGLAND
Kensington Central Library Lecture Theatre  6.30-7.30 pm FREE. More information and book through Eventbrite here
Part of a mini Folklore Festival in which, amongst others, Christopher Josiffe should also be giving a talk.

Thursday 26 March WHISTLER: CHELSEA'S GREATEST ARTIST Chelsea Library 6.15-7.15 pm
More information and book through Eventbrite here FREE

Thursday 9 April DECADENT WESTMINSTER City of Westminster Archives Centre 10 St Anne's St, Westminster, SW1P 2DE (details to follow)  FREE

New Edition of Decadent London

The new revised and expanded edition of Decadent London has arrived from the printers and it looks and feels great. It is now over 400 pages in extent and includes a walk around 1890s London at the back.

Available for purchase now from The Big Cartel here

Treadwells bookshop, Bloomsbury, London here

Watkins in Cecil Court, London here

Gay's The Word, London here

More outlets to follow.

Review of the first edition from The Independent on Sunday here

Review of the first edition from The Open University here

Thursday 12 December 'Oscar and Friends' A free talk at Kensington Central Library with Nina Antonia and Darcy Sullivan here  Copies of Decadent London will be on sale at this talk for a substantial discount.

Very limited numbers of Secret Tunnels of England: Folklore & Fact available from Big Cartel here


DECADENT LONDON BY ANTONY CLAYTON, FOREWORD BY MAX DECHARNE

As the dawn of the twentieth century loomed, London was undergoing tremendous changes, establishing itself as the heart of one of the most powerful empires the world has ever seen. However, in the same decade that witnessed the celebrations of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee a diverse group of writers, artists and poets sought to subvert the oppressive cultural and moral atmosphere of the period. This was the city explored by Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons, Aubrey Beardsley, Frank Harris and Ernest Dowson, together with their less well-known compatriots Lionel Johnson, John Gray, John Davidson and the mysterious Count Stenbock.

Using a thematic approach, Decadent London recreates the artistic milieu of this turbulent time, described the most popular decadent destinations and provides concise biographical material on the central characters, many of whom became victims of their excessively louche lifestyles. Visit the raucous decadent pubs such as The Crown and The Cock, listen in at the Cheshire Cheese, where W B Yeats read his poems to the Rhymers' Club, enjoy the wit of Wilde and Whistler at the Cafe Royal and explore the idyllic artistic retreat of Bedford Parkin the suburbs. The book also describes the work produced by London's decadent writers and artists, particularly their contribution to the decade's most innovative periodicals The Yellow Book and The Savoy. It outlines the development of the burgeoning music hall scene beloved of many decadents, probes into the underworld of drug taking, pornography and prostitution and uncovers the occult pursuits of the Golden Dawn and the Great Beast Aleister Crowley.

THIS INFORMATIVE GLIMPSE INTO ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING PERIODS IN THE CAPITAL'S CULTURAL HISTORY HAS BEEN FULLY REVISED AND SUPPLEMENTED BY NEW MATERIAL.

More Beastly Folklore (The Beast and the Lamb) and Book News

This is my 400th post since starting the blog!

I'd like to use it to announce the publication of a new substantially revised and updated version of Decadent London which should be out by the end of this month, published by Accumulator Press.

The book has been thoroughly revised, new material has been added and musician and writer Max Decharne kindly agreed to write a foreword.

Decadent London will be available on The Big Cartel and from the following bookshops in London:

Treadwells

Watkins

Atlantis

Two free talks have been arranged so far to promote this new edition, both can be booked through Eventbrite:

6 December Westminster Reference Library to coincide with the excellent Yellow Book Exhibition (which has been extended to 9 December). Talk begins at 6.30pm. Details here.

12 December Kensington Central Library - with Nina Antonia and Darcy Sullivan - see here

Today is the 45th(!) anniversary of the date of the original release in 1974 of my favourite lp The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. There's a good article about it here.

As a bonus we learn therein that Headley Grange, where it was recorded, was a 'former poorhouse [that] had been owned by Aleister Crowley, which had drawn devotee Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin to record there.' [Most of Led Zep IV and parts of Physical Graffiti] In Hugh Fielder's Book of Genesis Peter Gabriel says in an interview: 'We were working at Headley Grange which I felt was partly haunted by Jimmy Page's black magic experiments ...' Steve Hackett has often remarked: 'If anything was a haunted house that place was. You'd hear extraordinary noises at night - it was almost impossible to sleep.'

As far as I'm aware there is no connection between Crowley and Headley Grange - there could be confusion with Page's ownership of the Great Beast's former home Boleskine on Loch Ness during the 1970s.

Netherwood still on sale

I've been notified by a couple of interested customers (thanks) that the Big Cartel site was not showing Netherwood and Secret Tunnels of England: Folklore & Fact as still being on sale.

I have made some adjustments at the Accumulator Press page and can confirm that they most definitely ARE on sale - a copy of Netherwood was bought just last night. Sorry for any confusion.

There are less than 50 copies of Secret Tunnels and around 130 of Netherwood remaining (inserts are also still available).

They can be bought from The Big Cartel here.

I don't want to bang on about it, but this week I despatched 16 copies of Netherwood to various shops and individuals and I don't think I'll be producing a third edition, so I can see it selling out in the next few months.

Also available from Treadwells in London and Hare & Hawthorn in Hastings, both shops that I've had very good dealings with and have sold a lot of copies on my behalf.

Caveat Emptor: I recently had a brief encounter with someone who agreed to sell Netherwood and ripped me off - won't name him natch, but the fact that he boasts of being a 'socialist' on his website certainly rankles. Luckily the number of books involved was very small.

The reason for the lack of activity on the blog is that I'm currently working with my trusty typesetter on a new edition of an earlier book, to which I've added considerably more text and much more comprehensive footnotes, together with some different illustrations. I'm hoping to have it printed and published by the autumn of this year. More news soon.

The next event is 26 September talking on Decadent London for Salon for the City with Nina Antonia talking about Lionel Johnson. I'm flattered to see that I'm described as a 'cult writer'.  Tickets available HERE.

Spring Into Action

A lot of my time is being spent revising one of my earlier books for republication - hopefully in the summer. The rights to my early books have now reverted to me. This one will be published by Accumulator Press (like Secret Tunnels and Netherwood) and we'll see how things go and consider republishing one or two of the others. I am also considering publishing, or re-publishing, non-fiction (no fiction or poetry) by other authors.

At present I have only one talk arranged - it's for Salon in the City in September on Decadent London (can you guess which book I'm republishing?). Also appearing at that event is Nina Antonia, who amongst other things has recently written a book about Decadent poet Lionel Johnson called Incurable. See here.

Jack-in-the-Green will be with us shortly. See here.

A book I very much enjoyed reading recently was Hollywood by Garson Kanin, a highly readable and amusing account of his time as a screenwriter and film director in Hollywood, mainly for Sam Goldwyn, who is brought to colourful life in the pages. What is impressive is that it's told almost entirely in dialogue - although as with any such account you have to question how accurately these conversations could possibly have been remembered - but it's all hugely entertaining. I also found interesting the account of 'Mae's' an LA brothel where the girls were lookalikes for film stars of the period, surely the inspiration for the similar operation in James Ellroy's LA Confidential where they were 'cut to look like movie stars'.