2019 Talks

I think that the talk I gave at Treadwells Bookshop on Thursday went very well and as usual I met some interesting people afterwards. I signed a few books, some had even brought in copies of the first edition of Netherwood for signing. I'd like to thank everyone who came along and especially Christina and her staff at Treadwells who have been the best bookshop outlet for Netherwood.

One young man told me about a writer I have to confess I'd never heard of before called Stephen Volk. He recently wrote a book called Netherwood which features as part of a trilogy of novels about famous men and the locations they are often associated with: so we have Peter Cushing at Whitstable and Alfred Hitchcock at Leytonstone (with Aleister Crowley and Dennis Wheatley at Hastings - although I should point out that these two never met at Netherwood in 'real life').

I'll try to get hold of this book The Dark Masters Trilogy see here.

Also various interviews with the author online. In this one there are a couple of details mentioned that  make me think that the author may have read my Netherwood although he doesn't mention it by name.

Certainly the dramatic and fictional possibilities of Crowley's last three years at Netherwood are still ripe for mining - I have met a couple of lovely chaps who wrote a play about it, although I'm not sure if it's ever been staged and it crops up in A Chemical Wedding (by Julian Doyle & Bruce Dickinson, have to be honest I thought this book  wasn't very good; I haven't seen the film with Simon Callow as AC) and Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Century. I'm sure there must be many others. Obviously, the novel of that name by Jane Sanderson has nothing whatever to do with the Hastings guesthouse.

One point I made in the talk was about the huge amount of misinformation on Crowley (and indeed Netherwood, often referred to as a 'cheap' 'shabby' or 'seedy' boarding house in numerous books, articles and online sources). As just one example see the first post here correcting numerous mistakes to be found in a biography of Led Zeppelin (which also includes a very favourable reference to my book in the 11th citation - thank you to the poster).

Further talks in 2019:

Thursday 31 January Folklore of Underground London Kensington Central Library 18:30-19:30 FREE  BOOK HERE

Thursday 21 February Subterranean City: Beneath the Streets of London 18;30-19:30 FREE
BOOK HERE

Tuesday 9 April Underground Folklore of England Kensington Central Library 18:30-19:30 FREE BOOK HERE

In July I shall probably be talking at Westminster Reference Library about Decadent London and the 1890s. TBC

As usual my books will be on sale at all these talks at discounted prices.