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.

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.

Events and Book Promotion Coming Up

The Barry Humphries auction made over £4 million and some items went for way more than estimated.

Meanwhile, rather than working on another book this year I intend to do some promotional events, mainly for Mansion of Gloom. Copies will be for sale at all events (not sure about the walks!). 

Copies of Mansion of Gloom can be purchased here.

So far we have:

The Last Tuesday Society online talk on Mansion of Gloom April 10 20:00 to 21:30.

The Dracula Society April 26. A talk about Mansion of Gloom. See here.

Salon For The City October 30. See here. An in-person talk at the Horse Hospital on the artist Whistler and his life in London, together with Dr Ian Mudway from Imperial, who will talk about London fogs, so prevalent in the artist's works. Tickets not yet available.

I've agreed to do a talk for the Sohemian Society at some point this year - they are moving from the Wheatsheaf pub to the Fitzroy Tavern over the next few weeks and a new programme is being arranged.

I also said that I'd do a few walks for the Sohemians (probably my last) covering Decadent London, Whistler's Chelsea, and with the expert accompaniment of Bill Redwood and Jim Pennington, William Burroughs in the West End of London. Dates in the summer to be confirmed.

There will also be a Poe-related event for The London Month of the Dead in October.  See here for 2024.

In the autumn I'm hoping to screen the Jean Epstein silent Usher film at a venue in Hastings with live accompaniment by a local musician. Details when available.

Don't forget the Nick Drake event at Westminster Music Library with Richard Morton Jack, James Wilson and Cathi Unsworth. Tickets are getting low so a good time to book through Eventbrite here.

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.

Whistler Talk March 2022

I have agreed to do an online talk about Whistler, which will go out on the evening of Tuesday 15 March.

Details here.

It's free to book and over 300 people have already made a reservation.

I also hope to sell some copies of Decadent London via Big Cartel and eBay on the night.

Above photos from a recent exhibition of recreations of famous paintings including Whistler's Mother by ethical taxidermists Field and Young. More details on them here.

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.

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

Netherwood and Stevie Smith

The new edition of Netherwood is being sold at silly prices on Amazon and elsewhere.

It is still available for £30 (plus p&p) at the Accumulator Press 'shop' on The Big Cartel here and for varying prices at the usual bookshops listed in previous posts. At the upcoming talks this month and next you can buy it from me for even less.

Thursday 28 June Whistler Chelsea's Greatest Artist here

Saturday 30 June The Haunted City: Modern Monsters and Urban Myths here

Thursday 12 July Whistler in Chelsea: A Guided Walk here

Thursday 24 July Decadent London here

JUST ADDED: Subterranean City: beneath the streets of London Friday 7 September details to follow.

In preparation for the Conway Hall talk I've been searching through some old newspapers online and coincidentally found a review of The Magic of Aleister Crowley by John Symonds from The Guardian of 13 April 1958, written by the renowned poet Stevie Smith.

She finds the book 'comical', but also notes 'how wretched [Crowley's magick] really is and with what horrid echoes from past centuries it dins on the mind.' 'To the author Crowley was an eccentric old gentleman, more comical than horrible, shrewd enough off the record, and well worth visiting, and cosseting ... In his retreat in Hastings, in the boarding-house called Netherwood, Crowley was a great attraction. His eyes stared, his ears stood out, he took drugs, swigged black market brandy and was long and spectral - in fact just what one wants in an English seaside boarding-house.'

Further Spring and Summer Talks and Events

More talks and events coming up.

A talk on the life and art of J A M Whistler at Putney Library Thursday 24 May 7pm. Details here.

A walk based on William Burroughs sojourn in London in the late 1960s, early 1970s will take place on Saturday 26 May from Westminster Reference Library 3-5pm. I will be joined on this guided walk around Burroughsian haunts in Soho and St James's by Dr William Redwood and samizdat printer and publisher Jim Pennington who met Burroughs during this period - see this interesting piece about him here. This event is organised by Salon for the City and tickets must be booked and paid for online in advance. See more details and for booking tickets here.

It will coincide with an exhibition at Westminster Reference Library featuring parts of the archive of London countercultural legend Barry Miles. See here and here. There will be a live interview with Miles at the library on Wednesday 30 May again organised by Salon for the City. Details here.

An article in The Quietus here.

A talk on the life and art of J A M Whistler at Kensington Central Library Thursday 28 June 6.30pm. See here.

Whistler in Chelsea walk from Chelsea Library Thursday 12 July.  Details here.

Decadent London talk at Kensington Central Library Tuesday 24 July 6.30pm. Details to follow.

Talk at an urban folklore conference in central London in late June. Details to follow.

'Tunnels Under Holborn' talk at Holborn Library Local Studies Centre Thursday 11 October 7.15pm. Details to follow.

Gary Lachman's talk on Aleister Crowley at Kensington Library last month can be seen here.

Talks and Walks 2018

It looks as if I shall be quite busy with talks and walks this year. Some are still being finalised, but so far we have:

     Thursday 15 February talk The Underground Folklore of England    Kensington Central Library Lecture Theatre starts 6.30pm

See here for booking.  Only about 20 FREE tickets left from 200. This subject is always popular.


     Thursday 15 March talk Aleister Crowley: Life and Legacy    Kensington Central Library Lecture Theatre starts 6.30pm.  Gary Lachman will also be talking at this event.

See here for booking.  This FREE event is also doing well, about half the places have been booked.

   
Thursday 5 April talk Tunnels Under Holborn    Camden Local History Society Burgh House, Hampstead starts 7.30pm.  See here for booking.  Non-members pay £1 entry.


Also in April there will probably be one of my general Subterranean City talks about underground London. To be confirmed.

Late May a walk with Bill Redwood and others about William Burroughs to coincide with an exhibition about him in central London. To be confirmed

June a walk about Whistler in Chelsea visiting some of his haunts and locations. To be confirmed.

There will probably be more later in the year.

I shall have copies of my books for sale at all events, usually with considerable discounts. Obviously there are more available at the talks as it's uncomfortable carrying large numbers of hardback books around on a walk.

Miscellany

The Motorpsycho show at the Jazz Cafe was excellent, a number of moments of pure transcendence - hard psychedelic rock, few traces of the prog evident on The Death Defying Unicorn (none of it was played) - guitarist from Dungen amazing on mellotron and guitar.  Looking at their gear afterwards someone pointed out a set of Taurus bass pedals as used by Mike Rutherford of Genesis in the glory days; also got to meet the group backstage afterwards, which was nice.

Last week went to the Electric Palace to see the Mott Road Crew reminisce about working for Mott, David Bowie, Queen etc.  Some interesting home movies from Morgan Fisher.

Also went to the London Fortean Society to see Gary Lachman give an impassioned talk to a very crowded room about the late Colin Wilson - Wilson's wife and daughter were there.

This sounds as if it could be interesting.

Details of the Whistler walk here.

The William Burroughs walk I did with Bill Redwood will probably be repeated in early September, in the meantime another exhibition in London.

The Philosophytown weekend events can be found here.  I'm speaking on Sunday, but hope to get there for Saturday.

It looks as if Lord of Strange Deaths, the book about Sax Rohmer may be appearing this summer, a bumper 400 pages now apparently.  I've arranged an evening with Phil Baker, Gary Lachman and myself talking about Rohmer, Fu Manchu and the occult at Kensington Central Library in December.  More details to follow.

Whistler's Mother

I finally got round to visiting Hastings Cemetery today on a glorious sunny afternoon as part of some local research I'm doing as well as a follow-up to the last book.  Unconnected with the book, but very much pertinent to my interests - Whistler is one of my favourite artists - is the fact that his mother Anna Matilda McNeill Whistler lived a few doors down from us and it is extremely likely that, as our house was built in 1861, the great artist himself walked past it on a number of occasions.  I found her memorial in the Garden of Rest - it is now buried in the ground but still perfectly legible.  I hope to expand this post at some point in the future.

Above photograph by me of the memorial stone; below Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 (1871, Musee D'Orsay, Paris)