Category Archives: London
Dress-down Friday: Lulu
The hidden Victorian origins of cross-dressing trapeze artistry…
Unknown | The Dandy’s Perambulations
The dandies presented in this charmingly illustrated, uncredited children’s book are bumbling, anxious and coddled.
Unknown | The Dandy’s Perambulations
The dandies presented in this charmingly illustrated, uncredited children’s book are bumbling, anxious and coddled.
Man Ray | portraits
Man Ray, an American of acutely European sensibilities, was of inestimable importance to 20th century image making.
Man Ray | portraits
Man Ray, an American of acutely European sensibilities, was of inestimable importance to 20th century image making.
Pages: Passionate Attitudes
“Beardsley, like ‘decadence’, was new, diseased and curious in form – and, like the century, he was hastening towards his end.”
Pages: Passionate Attitudes
“Beardsley, like ‘decadence’, was new, diseased and curious in form – and, like the century, he was hastening towards his end.”
‘Hundreds of pages of nonsense?’
…or, the autobiography of the Baron de Redé, subject of a lecture by the book’s editor, Hugo Vickers.
‘Hundreds of pages of nonsense?’
…or, the autobiography of the Baron de Redé, subject of a lecture by the book’s editor, Hugo Vickers.
Wyndham Lewis | portrait studies
These drawings and lithographs are smaller-scale studies of (mostly) British between-the-wars luminaries.
Wyndham Lewis | portrait studies
These drawings and lithographs are smaller-scale studies of (mostly) British between-the-wars luminaries.
Pages: The Books of the Beast
This is a 1987 miscellany of pieces stretching back as much as twenty years prior. The title piece concerns the published works of Aleister Crowley, a figure of fascination for the author ever since he was disciplined at school for ordering The Great Beast.
Pages: The Books of the Beast
This is a 1987 miscellany of pieces stretching back as much as twenty years prior. The title piece concerns the published works of Aleister Crowley, a figure of fascination for the author ever since he was disciplined at school for ordering The Great Beast.
A medley of extemporanea (repost)
Stephen Tennant’s narcissism was so pure and open and unabashed that it belongs almost to a different category. “You were very beautiful this evening Stephen,” reads one diary entry.
A medley of extemporanea (repost)
Stephen Tennant’s narcissism was so pure and open and unabashed that it belongs almost to a different category. “You were very beautiful this evening Stephen,” reads one diary entry.
“Scholar, connoisseur, drunkard, poet, pervert…” (repost)
The count’s bedroom featured a pentagram over the bed, and there he would smoke opium and play piano late into the night, emerging the next day – late, naturally – in a dressing gown with a snake wrapped around his neck.
“Scholar, connoisseur, drunkard, poet, pervert…” (repost)
The count’s bedroom featured a pentagram over the bed, and there he would smoke opium and play piano late into the night, emerging the next day – late, naturally – in a dressing gown with a snake wrapped around his neck.
At home with Nina Hamnett (repost)
Nina Hamnett was vivacious, high-spirited, up for anything; a typical evening might find her singing off-colour sea shanties to a delighted André Gide, or dancing naked on a table in a Montparnasse bar long after closing time for an audience including Brancusi and Modigliani.
At home with Nina Hamnett (repost)
Nina Hamnett was vivacious, high-spirited, up for anything; a typical evening might find her singing off-colour sea shanties to a delighted André Gide, or dancing naked on a table in a Montparnasse bar long after closing time for an audience including Brancusi and Modigliani.
Julian Maclaren-Ross at 100
It’s hard to shake the suspicion that if an author of Julian Maclaren-Ross’s undeniable gifts and compelling myth had emerged anywhere else in Europe but Britain, his centenary would be a much bigger deal.
Julian Maclaren-Ross at 100
It’s hard to shake the suspicion that if an author of Julian Maclaren-Ross’s undeniable gifts and compelling myth had emerged anywhere else in Europe but Britain, his centenary would be a much bigger deal.
Summer Flowers
In writing about people who died long ago, frequently in obscurity, it’s heart-warming to know that their secret influence continues to erupt in unpredictable locations around the globe.
Summer Flowers
In writing about people who died long ago, frequently in obscurity, it’s heart-warming to know that their secret influence continues to erupt in unpredictable locations around the globe.
Ironfoot Jack on film
Here he is! In the daytime! In colour! He’s just one of the wonders in this brilliant time capsule of Soho in the 1950s, when the cappuccino machine was still a device of such foreign exoticism it may as well have been a sputnik.
Ironfoot Jack on film
Here he is! In the daytime! In colour! He’s just one of the wonders in this brilliant time capsule of Soho in the 1950s, when the cappuccino machine was still a device of such foreign exoticism it may as well have been a sputnik.
Dodo’s return
While they bore a surface glamour, Dodo’s images were both jaded and jaundiced, as if attempting to market the Expressionists’ brand of caustic cynicism to blasé sophisticates as a desirable lifestyle option.
Dodo’s return
While they bore a surface glamour, Dodo’s images were both jaded and jaundiced, as if attempting to market the Expressionists’ brand of caustic cynicism to blasé sophisticates as a desirable lifestyle option.
Daniel Farson | portraits
Daniel Farson was a key figure of the post-war Soho social circle, whose members – most notably Francis Bacon – often turn up in his pictures.
Daniel Farson | portraits
Daniel Farson was a key figure of the post-war Soho social circle, whose members – most notably Francis Bacon – often turn up in his pictures.
The Pleasure Garden
Set in an overgrown garden dotted with classical statuary (actually the ruins of London’s Crystal Palace), The Pleasure Garden pits the forces of life, love and light against the dark, dreary and draconian.
The Pleasure Garden
Set in an overgrown garden dotted with classical statuary (actually the ruins of London’s Crystal Palace), The Pleasure Garden pits the forces of life, love and light against the dark, dreary and draconian.
Potocki de Montalk in verse
“And a little boat with lights green, yellow and red,/Is turned into a magical Chinese/Duck, whose long wake is/A right-triangle…”
Potocki de Montalk in verse
“And a little boat with lights green, yellow and red,/Is turned into a magical Chinese/Duck, whose long wake is/A right-triangle…”
Saving the Abbey
Crowley took a band of acolytes to Cefalú in 1920 and there conducted some of his most extreme excursions into ritualistic practice before being booted out by the new fascist regime in 1923. Since then the Abbey has slid further and further into ruin.
Saving the Abbey
Crowley took a band of acolytes to Cefalú in 1920 and there conducted some of his most extreme excursions into ritualistic practice before being booted out by the new fascist regime in 1923. Since then the Abbey has slid further and further into ruin.
