Author: Paul Willetts
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847659942
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 588
Book Description
For almost forty years, Paul Raymond was one Britain's most scandalous celebrities. Best known as the owner of the world famous Raymond Revuebar, he was a successful theatre impresario, property magnate and porn baron. With his pencil moustache, gold jewellery and taste for showgirls, Raymond was both the brash personification of nouveau riche vulgarity and exemplar of the entrepreneurial spirit that enabled a poor boy from Liverpool to become Britain's richest man. 'Like 24 Hour Party People, we want to capture the life of an extraordinary man living in extraordinary times' Steve Coogan
The Look of Love
Author: Paul Willetts
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847659942
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 588
Book Description
For almost forty years, Paul Raymond was one Britain's most scandalous celebrities. Best known as the owner of the world famous Raymond Revuebar, he was a successful theatre impresario, property magnate and porn baron. With his pencil moustache, gold jewellery and taste for showgirls, Raymond was both the brash personification of nouveau riche vulgarity and exemplar of the entrepreneurial spirit that enabled a poor boy from Liverpool to become Britain's richest man. 'Like 24 Hour Party People, we want to capture the life of an extraordinary man living in extraordinary times' Steve Coogan
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847659942
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 588
Book Description
For almost forty years, Paul Raymond was one Britain's most scandalous celebrities. Best known as the owner of the world famous Raymond Revuebar, he was a successful theatre impresario, property magnate and porn baron. With his pencil moustache, gold jewellery and taste for showgirls, Raymond was both the brash personification of nouveau riche vulgarity and exemplar of the entrepreneurial spirit that enabled a poor boy from Liverpool to become Britain's richest man. 'Like 24 Hour Party People, we want to capture the life of an extraordinary man living in extraordinary times' Steve Coogan
Soho
Author: Dan Cruickshank
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 0297869337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
SOHO - ILLICIT, GLAMOROUS, SORDID, LOUCHE, POVERTY-STRICKEN, SQUALID, EXHILARATING. One of Britain's best-loved historians, Dan Cruickshank grants us an intimacy with centuries of rich and varied London history as he guides us around the Soho of the last five hundred years. We learn of its original aspirations towards respectability, how it became the city's bohemian quarter and why it was once home to its criminal underworld. The history of Soho is written in its surviving architecture, including its bars, clubs and theatres. Cruickshank observes how the common denominator over the centuries is its appeal as a destination for immigrants: from French Huguenots to the Italian and East European Jewish community and recent Chinese diaspora - and that this is the foundation of its spirit and success. Even as he mourns some of the changes, he pays heartfelt testament to the district's resilience.
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 0297869337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
SOHO - ILLICIT, GLAMOROUS, SORDID, LOUCHE, POVERTY-STRICKEN, SQUALID, EXHILARATING. One of Britain's best-loved historians, Dan Cruickshank grants us an intimacy with centuries of rich and varied London history as he guides us around the Soho of the last five hundred years. We learn of its original aspirations towards respectability, how it became the city's bohemian quarter and why it was once home to its criminal underworld. The history of Soho is written in its surviving architecture, including its bars, clubs and theatres. Cruickshank observes how the common denominator over the centuries is its appeal as a destination for immigrants: from French Huguenots to the Italian and East European Jewish community and recent Chinese diaspora - and that this is the foundation of its spirit and success. Even as he mourns some of the changes, he pays heartfelt testament to the district's resilience.
Soho on Screen
Author: Jingan Young
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1805399314
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 358
Book Description
Despite Soho’s rich cultural history, there remains an absence of work on the depiction of the popular neighbourhood in film. Soho on Screen provides one of the first studies of Soho within post-war British cinema. Drawing upon historical, cultural and urban studies of the area, this book explores twelve films and theatrically released documentaries from a filmography of over one hundred Soho set productions. While predominantly focusing on low-budget, exploitation films which are exemplars of British and international filmmaking, Young also offers new readings of star and director biographies, from Laurence Harvey to Emeric Pressburger, and in so doing enlivens discussion on filmmaking in a time and place of intense social transformation, technological innovation and growing permissiveness.
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1805399314
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 358
Book Description
Despite Soho’s rich cultural history, there remains an absence of work on the depiction of the popular neighbourhood in film. Soho on Screen provides one of the first studies of Soho within post-war British cinema. Drawing upon historical, cultural and urban studies of the area, this book explores twelve films and theatrically released documentaries from a filmography of over one hundred Soho set productions. While predominantly focusing on low-budget, exploitation films which are exemplars of British and international filmmaking, Young also offers new readings of star and director biographies, from Laurence Harvey to Emeric Pressburger, and in so doing enlivens discussion on filmmaking in a time and place of intense social transformation, technological innovation and growing permissiveness.
North Soho 999
Author: Paul Willetts
Publisher: Dewi Lewis Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
A surprisingly topical non-fiction account of the murder that came to symbolise the crimewave threatening to overwhelm post-war London. It is the untold story of a Soho robbery and shooting carried out by a 17 year old and his two young accomplices. Much of the worldwide press reaction at the time focussed on the breakdown of law and order, rising youth crime, the spread of illegal firearms and the deterrent value of capital punishment - concerns that are frequently echoed today.
Publisher: Dewi Lewis Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
A surprisingly topical non-fiction account of the murder that came to symbolise the crimewave threatening to overwhelm post-war London. It is the untold story of a Soho robbery and shooting carried out by a 17 year old and his two young accomplices. Much of the worldwide press reaction at the time focussed on the breakdown of law and order, rising youth crime, the spread of illegal firearms and the deterrent value of capital punishment - concerns that are frequently echoed today.
The Brave Blue Line
Author: Dick Kirby
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1844689891
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
In their daily battle against a remorseless tide of crime, officers of Londons Metropolitan Police routinely risk their lives protecting the Capital. In The Brave Blue Line Dick Kirby, the former Scotland Yard detective turned popularcrime author, has brought together a superb collection of inspiring stories of police gallantry over the last hundred years.Officers to be honoured with the George Cross, the highest civilian award, have their stories told including Jim Beaton who saved Princess Anne from kidnap in The Mall.Three women officers have been awarded the George Medal, two for decoy work, the third for a heroic rooftop rescue.The book concludes with the astonishing story of a retired detective who tackled armed robbers at the cost of his eye. He may have left the Met behind him but not his courage.Every page of this gripping book with its thrilling and well researched accounts of outstanding acts of gallantry by policemen and women makes for inspiring reading. This is crime writing of the highest order.
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1844689891
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
In their daily battle against a remorseless tide of crime, officers of Londons Metropolitan Police routinely risk their lives protecting the Capital. In The Brave Blue Line Dick Kirby, the former Scotland Yard detective turned popularcrime author, has brought together a superb collection of inspiring stories of police gallantry over the last hundred years.Officers to be honoured with the George Cross, the highest civilian award, have their stories told including Jim Beaton who saved Princess Anne from kidnap in The Mall.Three women officers have been awarded the George Medal, two for decoy work, the third for a heroic rooftop rescue.The book concludes with the astonishing story of a retired detective who tackled armed robbers at the cost of his eye. He may have left the Met behind him but not his courage.Every page of this gripping book with its thrilling and well researched accounts of outstanding acts of gallantry by policemen and women makes for inspiring reading. This is crime writing of the highest order.
Cultural Passions
Author: Elizabeth Wilson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857722182
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
Elizabeth Wilson is one of our most radical cultural critics. In "Cultural Passions" she transcends the division between 'high' and 'low' culture, exploring the emotional commitment people bring to the books, performances, objects and rituals in which they find meaning and challenging an enduring suspicion of the pleasure of the aesthetic. Ranging from Marcel Proust to tarot readings, from urban planning to interiors, Elizabeth Wilson investigates an underlying Puritanism in critical commentary on matters as wide ranging as Roger Federer and C S Lewis, Surrealism and fashion and the relationship of religion to fan culture. She questions why pleasure appears suspect, even as consumer society incites it and turns life into entertainment. She questions why there is such fear of elitism when at the same time the fans of mass culture are held in contempt. Subverting conventional views, her oblique point of view provides startling insights on both familiar and marginal cultural experiences.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857722182
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
Elizabeth Wilson is one of our most radical cultural critics. In "Cultural Passions" she transcends the division between 'high' and 'low' culture, exploring the emotional commitment people bring to the books, performances, objects and rituals in which they find meaning and challenging an enduring suspicion of the pleasure of the aesthetic. Ranging from Marcel Proust to tarot readings, from urban planning to interiors, Elizabeth Wilson investigates an underlying Puritanism in critical commentary on matters as wide ranging as Roger Federer and C S Lewis, Surrealism and fashion and the relationship of religion to fan culture. She questions why pleasure appears suspect, even as consumer society incites it and turns life into entertainment. She questions why there is such fear of elitism when at the same time the fans of mass culture are held in contempt. Subverting conventional views, her oblique point of view provides startling insights on both familiar and marginal cultural experiences.
Rendezvous at the Russian Tea Rooms
Author: Paul Willetts
Publisher: Constable
ISBN: 147211986X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 673
Book Description
Rendezvous at the Russian Tea Rooms provides the first comprehensive account of what was once hailed by a leading American newspaper as the greatest spy story of World War II. This dramatic yet little-known saga, replete with telephone taps, kidnappings, and police surveillance, centres on the furtive escapades of Tyler Kent, a handsome, womanising 28-year-old Ivy League graduate, who doubles as a US Embassy code clerk and Soviet agent. Against the backdrop of London high society during the so-called Phoney War, Kent's life intersects with the lives of the book's two other memorably flamboyant protagonists. One of those is Maxwell Knight, an urbane, endearingly eccentric MI5 spyhunter. The other is Anna Wolkoff, a White Russian fashion designer and Nazi spy whose outfits are worn by the Duchess of Windsor and whose parents are friends of the British royal family. Wolkoff belongs to a fascist secret society called the Right Club, which aims to overthrow the British government. Her romantic entanglement with Tyler Kent gives her access to a secret correspondence between President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, a correspondence that has the potential to transform the outcome of the war.
Publisher: Constable
ISBN: 147211986X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 673
Book Description
Rendezvous at the Russian Tea Rooms provides the first comprehensive account of what was once hailed by a leading American newspaper as the greatest spy story of World War II. This dramatic yet little-known saga, replete with telephone taps, kidnappings, and police surveillance, centres on the furtive escapades of Tyler Kent, a handsome, womanising 28-year-old Ivy League graduate, who doubles as a US Embassy code clerk and Soviet agent. Against the backdrop of London high society during the so-called Phoney War, Kent's life intersects with the lives of the book's two other memorably flamboyant protagonists. One of those is Maxwell Knight, an urbane, endearingly eccentric MI5 spyhunter. The other is Anna Wolkoff, a White Russian fashion designer and Nazi spy whose outfits are worn by the Duchess of Windsor and whose parents are friends of the British royal family. Wolkoff belongs to a fascist secret society called the Right Club, which aims to overthrow the British government. Her romantic entanglement with Tyler Kent gives her access to a secret correspondence between President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, a correspondence that has the potential to transform the outcome of the war.
The Bebop Scene in London's Soho, 1945-1950
Author: Ray Kinsella
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031055551
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 285
Book Description
This is the first book to tell the story of the bebop subculture in London’s Soho, a subculture that emerged in 1945 and reached its pinnacle in 1950. In an exploration via the intersections of race, class and gender, it shows how bebop identities were constructed and articulated. Combining a wide range of archival research and theory, the book evocatively demonstrates how the scene evolved in Soho’s clubs, the fashion that formed around the music, drug usage amongst a contingent of the group, and the moral panic which led to the police raids on the clubs between 1947 and 1950. Thereafter it maps the changes in popular culture in Soho during the 1950s, and argues that the bebop story is an important precedent to the institutional harassment of black-related spaces and culture that continued in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This book therefore rewrites the first chapter of the ‘classic’ subcultural canon, and resets the subcultural clock; requiring us to rethink the periodization and social make-up of British post-war youth subcultures.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031055551
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 285
Book Description
This is the first book to tell the story of the bebop subculture in London’s Soho, a subculture that emerged in 1945 and reached its pinnacle in 1950. In an exploration via the intersections of race, class and gender, it shows how bebop identities were constructed and articulated. Combining a wide range of archival research and theory, the book evocatively demonstrates how the scene evolved in Soho’s clubs, the fashion that formed around the music, drug usage amongst a contingent of the group, and the moral panic which led to the police raids on the clubs between 1947 and 1950. Thereafter it maps the changes in popular culture in Soho during the 1950s, and argues that the bebop story is an important precedent to the institutional harassment of black-related spaces and culture that continued in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This book therefore rewrites the first chapter of the ‘classic’ subcultural canon, and resets the subcultural clock; requiring us to rethink the periodization and social make-up of British post-war youth subcultures.
The Mayfair Mafia
Author: Dick Kirby
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1526742624
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 267
Book Description
This true crime history reveals the shocking career of the London mafia family that ran a thriving prostitution empire for decades. From the mid-1930s into the 1950s, one immigrant Italian family ran London’s thriving vice trade. The five Messina brothers imported prostitutes from the Continent on an industrial scale, acquiring British citizenship for the women by phony marriages. Taking 80% of these women’s earnings, the Messina family became fabulously wealthy, purchasing expensive properties, cars and influence. As this revealing and absorbing account describes, the brothers ruled with a ruthless combination of charm, blackmail and threats of disfigurement and death that were all too credible. It took a sensational Sunday newspaper exposé to get the authorities to put an end to their criminal reign. A series of dramatic arrests and trials followed, as one by one the brothers were imprisoned and deported for crimes including immoral earnings, attempted bribery and firearms offenses. Such was their fortune that numerous potential beneficiaries came forward, most recently in 2012. Dick Kirby, an author and former Metropolitan police officer, presents a vividly detailed and thoroughly researched narrative of the five Messina brothers in this revealing and riveting read.
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1526742624
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 267
Book Description
This true crime history reveals the shocking career of the London mafia family that ran a thriving prostitution empire for decades. From the mid-1930s into the 1950s, one immigrant Italian family ran London’s thriving vice trade. The five Messina brothers imported prostitutes from the Continent on an industrial scale, acquiring British citizenship for the women by phony marriages. Taking 80% of these women’s earnings, the Messina family became fabulously wealthy, purchasing expensive properties, cars and influence. As this revealing and absorbing account describes, the brothers ruled with a ruthless combination of charm, blackmail and threats of disfigurement and death that were all too credible. It took a sensational Sunday newspaper exposé to get the authorities to put an end to their criminal reign. A series of dramatic arrests and trials followed, as one by one the brothers were imprisoned and deported for crimes including immoral earnings, attempted bribery and firearms offenses. Such was their fortune that numerous potential beneficiaries came forward, most recently in 2012. Dick Kirby, an author and former Metropolitan police officer, presents a vividly detailed and thoroughly researched narrative of the five Messina brothers in this revealing and riveting read.
Selected Letters
Author: Julian Maclaren-Ross
Publisher: Black Spring Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
The letters of a writer who is deservedly getting more and more attention, a fascinating insight into the life of a bohemian writer of the mid-20th century. This collection shows his brilliant story-telling talents and is a gripping narrative of love, money troubles, homelessness and drug-induced psychosis, as well as the more everyday concerns of a professional writer. Maclaren Roass was admired by Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene in his lifetime, and Harold Pinter, Michael Holroyd, Ian Sinclair and Melvyn Bragg since. He has recently achieved cult status.
Publisher: Black Spring Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
The letters of a writer who is deservedly getting more and more attention, a fascinating insight into the life of a bohemian writer of the mid-20th century. This collection shows his brilliant story-telling talents and is a gripping narrative of love, money troubles, homelessness and drug-induced psychosis, as well as the more everyday concerns of a professional writer. Maclaren Roass was admired by Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene in his lifetime, and Harold Pinter, Michael Holroyd, Ian Sinclair and Melvyn Bragg since. He has recently achieved cult status.