John Martyn and Aleister Crowley

 

I'm reading Small Hours: The Long Night of John Martyn  by Graeme Thomson (Omnibus Press 2024) which I'll probably polish off in a couple of days as it's a real page-turner. I just read this passage on page 106 about his time in the early 1970s living in Hastings with wife Beverley (sadly deceased this month see HERE and HERE) and stepson Wesley.

'Two doors down [from 10 Cobourg Place in the Old Town] stood Harpsicord House, where the writer, mystic, magician and "wickedest man in the world" Aleister Crowley had first lived when he moved to Hastings in advanced age, and where the occultist Rollo Ahmed later resided. Martyn was one of a number of musicians, notably Jimmy Page, but also David Bowie, who harboured a fascination with Crowley and his Thelemic ethical code: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."' 

It would be interesting to know more about Martyn's 'fascination' with AC. However, while Rollo Ahmed definitely lived at Harpsicord House, Crowley moved to the guesthouse Netherwood on The Ridge directly from The Bell Inn Aston Clinton on 1 February 1945. Which reminds me that I'm thinking of republishing Netherwood: Last Resort of Aleister Crowley in an affordable paperback edition, finances permitting. Watch this space .... see HERE for the second edition sold out for some time.

An earlier post on John Martyn in Hastings HERE

Poe and Decadent 1890s Events coming up

 

My online talk for the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies will take place tomorrow evening at 7pm UK time and should be accessible worldwide.

BOOK HERE

Mansion of Gloom will be available for sale online afterwards at various places including the dedicated website HERE

I'm leading a walk around the vestiges of 1890s Decadent London on Saturday 11 July. Tickets are still available at time of post but selling fast.

BOOK HERE 

Darren Coffield Talks about his new book on Henrietta Moraes

I recall that many years ago I attended a suitably shambolic 'conversation' between Marianne Faithfull and Henrietta Moraes at the ICA in London. I knew of the latter because of my enthusiasm for the Soho and Fitzrovia milieu captured in the writings of Julian MacLaren Ross and Dan Farson (particularly Soho in the Fifties) - I was surprised that she was still alive - ditto MF. The only anecdote I now remember is one of them - I can't remember who - going on holiday and finding on arrival, in some far-flung country, that she had only packed seashells in her luggage, owing to the fact that she was tripping at the time. 

Darren Coffield, the great contemporary chronicler of Soho/Fitzrovia (particularly the Colony Room) has written a biography of Henrietta Moraes, who modelled for Bacon and Freud, which he will be discussing at the West End Arts Library on Friday 19 June 6.30 to 7.30.

FREE talk can be booked to avoid disappointment through Eventbrite (NB this has the former name Westminster Reference Library, the same place) HERE

I'll be introducing.