The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society discussion
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Hamilton-esque books, authors..
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Frank Norman
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Mark
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Oct 29, 2017 07:30AM
Nice find! I wonder if it's strictly an excerpt from Banana Boy?
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Just ordered a copy of our Frank’s 1973 East End novel, One Of Our Own. From all accounts, his early 1970s output represented something of a slip in quality, but I’m willing to risk it... not least of all because hardback first editions are being flogged through AbeBooks for pennies.
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It’s happened, from time to time, that I slow my reading in order to prolong the enjoyment I’m getting from a particular novel and not wanting it to end. It’s no different with the works of Frank Norman -- there’s a finite amount in existence, and I’m not ready to deplete the supply.And I’ll say it again -- there’s a remarkably interesting biography to be written before Norman’s friends and associates have all gone the way of the autumn winds. Guaranteed to sell in the tens!
I’m about sixty pages into Dodgem Greaser and, yup, it’s right up there with his best!
Mod
Hurrah - probably my personal fave (so far)
Nigeyb wrote: "Hurrah - probably my personal fave (so far)"I might have to agree there, sir. Maybe a tie with Banana Boy. It's kinda making me want to read Philip Allingham’s Cheapjack again. Either that, or run off with the circus.
Finished reading Dodgem Greaser last night, and rate it right up there alongside his best. A bit of a shame that I hadn’t owned a copy the very moment I finished Banana Boy, as they probably benefit a bit from being read back to back.So, with that one at my hind, I tucked into Norman’s London this morning and, man, this one’s a king-sized gas already. Every bit as good as our Frank got. The book is a compendium of his journalistic efforts over the ten years that followed Bang To Rights and, so far, serves as an excellent snapshot of a London that’s long gone. Recommended with supreme confidence, even if you have no choice but to pay a moderate cost for a copy.
Mod
Now then...
Mark wrote: "So, with that one at my hind, I tucked into Norman’s London this morning and, man, this one’s a king-sized gas already. Every bit as good as our Frank got. The book is a compendium of his journalistic efforts over the ten years that followed Bang To Rights and, so far, serves as an excellent snapshot of a London that’s long gone. Recommended with supreme confidence, even if you have no choice but to pay a moderate cost for a copy. "
Gonna have to get my mitts on this one. Thanks Mark.
A quick glance at AbeBooks turned up copies ranging from ten to twenty US Dollars, which is about what you’d expect to pay for a new paperback, and strikes me as a fair enough price.
Norman’s London is the real deal, McNeal. Like toilet paper and the Bible, no house is a home without it. It’s a compendium of his journalistic efforts for an array of mags and papers, with a few previously unpublished pieces, and does a mighty fine job of evoking a time and a place -- mostly Soho 1955-1965. In short, it was a hell of a lot of fun and, like pretty much everything else I’ve read of his, over too soon.As far as I can tell, the first edition is the only one out there, and it was published in hardback only. Plenty of copies going at the moment on AbeBooks for less than fifteen US dollars [from UK sellers], and a bargain at that. Run don’t walk.
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Nice find, there, Nige. I wasn't aware of that particular book, but it seems like one worth picking up if found at a friendly price.Speaking of Muriel, there's a good amount about her in Norman’s London... always a character, or so it seems.
I started on his One of our Own novel last night, and it seems good so far. A break from the usual Norman fare, in that it’s a proper novel and quite literate. The only thing that I’ve read about it is that it was perhaps over-sprawling. Then again, I’ve read over-sprawling novels that are generally accepted as classics of a sort, so that’s not necessarily one for the debit column. Will keep you posted as I go.
And, as we’re now firmly in December, it’s time to officially pronounce Frank Norman and Anthony Quinn as my favourite literary discoveries of 2017. Here’s to them!
Mod
I have now ordered a copy of 'Norman's London'
Ah, good, I can’t imagine you ending up disappointed. It struck me as the perfect companion to his autobiographical works, and includes a bit of everything -- including an unpublished article about his youth that ended up being the basis for Banana Boy. And, as it’s comprised of short works, it’s one that you can tuck into and out of whenever you have a few spare moments to spend between other duties. A wonderful little book that you can look forward to spending time with.
By the way, your praise has just led me to Nigel Richardson’s books on Soho and Brighton, which I’ve added to my list. Thanks!
Mod
Digging his One of our Own so far, right around 70 pages in. It certainly stands apart from his earlier novels, and not just by virtue of its non-autobiographical nature. By way of cheap comparisons, it’s along the lines of Norman Collins’ London Belongs To Me.From the dust jacket...
Frank Norman has written several autobiographical novels – among them Bang To Rights and Banana Boy – that have become bestsellers. One of our Own is a new departure for him; out of his long association with London he has created a compelling and imaginative novel that begins in the East End as World War II draws to a close and brings us up to the present day. The book is the story of a family; of Ernie, born and bred in London’s dockland, a docker all his life, uncomplainingly accustomed to the hard, narrow existence; of Molly, his wife, almost an archetypal mother figure; of Sid and Roy, the two sons, who return from the war to find the whole nature of the East End changed, with whole streets bombed out, new tower blocks of flats rising from the ashes, communities split up and disappearing; of Rita, the girl, whose search for love takes her through the discovery of sex to the rigours of marriage. It is a story of changing traditions and values, of the zest for life and the hardships of living, told with the picturesque earthiness and rich variety that only Frank Norman can command. With his fine narrative skills he has mined a warm and spontaneous vein of humanity.
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You're unstoppable Mark.
One Of Our Own sounds very promising. I look forward to more musings.
Nigeyb wrote: "You're unstoppable Mark. ..."Tis a fine line between unstoppable and not having the good sense to know when to stop.
Finished One of our Own last night and, while it might represent a very slight slip down from his earlier works, it’s still quite good and has much to recommend it. Well worth scooping up at the right price. Surprisingly enough, this one was quite Hamilton-esque, in that it took the reader inside not only the minds of an array of characters, but also provided an engaging snapshot of time and pace -- in this instance, London’s East End, from the end of the war through the early 1960s. Oddly, therefore, it also works shockingly well as a sort of working class companion piece to Quinn’s Freya. Not quite brilliant, but not a disappointment in the least.
Mod
I saw The Monkey Pulled His Hair on eBay the other day, but in a boring hardback edition, so not with racy period cover, and it would have been a tenner including P&P, so I demurred.
I should probably focussing on reading what I've got before trying to buy any more.
I totally understand your logic, and don’t disagree with it, but I’ve been burnt so many times over the years by not buying obscure things on the cheap when I find them, that I’ve since set my controls for IMPULSE when it comes to things like Frank Norman.Admit it, though... had it been the saucy cover, you’d’ve splashed out without hesitation!
And, for what it’s worth, I’d rate One of our Own a bit higher than The Monkey Pulled His Hair.
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Mark wrote: "....had it been the saucy cover, you’d’ve splashed out without hesitation!"
You know me so well. I'd have been in like Flynn.
Have just scooped up a cheap copy of his 1975 memoir Why Fings Went West, which details his theatre years in the late 1950s and early 60s. Don’t get in my way!
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By my calculation -- which, admittedly, is often more of a miscalculation -- there's just one more of his that I’m keen to find and read, and that's his Soho novel, Down And Out In High Society. Affordable copies seem scarce.
Presently barrelling through our Frank’s Too Many Crooks Spoil The Caper [1979], the first installment of his Ed Nelson trilogy -- a comedic, hard-boiled series about an under-employed Soho detective with a taste for whisky and trouble. He obviously had a whole lot of fun writing this, and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to read. Every bit as rife with cockney slang as his earlier autobiographical works, colourful characters and sense of place... all stack up for a very enjoyable read. The first two volumes seem to be readily available on the cheap, but the third and final installment changes hands for more than I’m willing to dispense with. One lives in hope.Meanwhile, a nice copy of his 1975 theatreland memoirs, Why Fings Went West, turned up in yesterday’s post. It’s a slim affair, at just over 100 pages and chockers with photos... but readily available at affordable cost, and looks like being an enjoyable read.
I’ll cop to being a bit misty-eyed about nearing the end of his catalogue -- hands down, he’s been my favourite discovery of recent years, and I’m left wishing that he’d lived long enough to carry on. Too Many Crooks Spoil The Caper seems irrefutable proof that his career was back on an upward trajectory as he began his sad march to the grave.
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Frank is a writer who deserves to find a new modern audience. Hopefully that will happen before much longer.
Having finished reading The Dead Butler Caper this evening, I can tell you it’s every bit as fun as Too Many Crooks Spoil The Caper. Both of these were published stateside, which doesn’t appear to be the case with the third and final volume, The Baskerville Caper. That might explain why affordable copies don’t seem to exist.
Mod
Keep ’em aside for when you want a fun and entertaining read that doesn’t tax your brain too much, and you’ll have a blast.Conversely, don’t cross the street for a copy of Why Fings Went West, which I read in its entirety last night in less than an hour. It’s a very short and anodyne retelling of the rise of Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be, clipped and without much trace of character. Great photos throughout, but not an essential read by any means.
Mod
Have you read the entire Norman bibliography now? Or at least those ones you want to read (excepting The Baskerville Caper, which you mention above)?
Just about. I’m keen to read his Soho novel, Down And Out In High Society [1975], but that’s the only one that I’m semi-actively chasing down.Meanwhile, I started Jonathan Lee’s High Dive yesterday -- thanks to your tip -- and am having trouble putting it down. So far, superb!
Mod
Not even registered that one Mark - sounds interesting
Mark wrote: "I started Jonathan Lee’s High Dive yesterday -- thanks to your tip -- and am having trouble putting it down. So far, superb! "
A very enjoyable novel - I'll be interested in your final thoughts
Mod
It mentions this programme about Jeffrey Bernard which I have now watched. Pretty good (though the preamble is less interesting).
Bernard mentions Soho Night and Day, his collaboration with Frank Norman and they show some of the photos too.
https://youtu.be/doA__PRdZ-Q
Soho in the Eighties by Christopher Howse
In the 1980s Daniel Farson published Soho in the Fifties. This memoir is a sequel from the Eighties, a decade that saw the brilliant flowering of a daily tragi-comedy enacted in pubs like the Coach and Horses or the French and in drinking clubs like the Colony Room. These were places of constant conversation and regular rows fuelled by alcohol. The cast was more improbable than any soap opera. Some were widely known--Jeffrey Bernard, Francis Bacon, Tom Baker or John Hurt. Just as important were the character actors: the Village Postmistress, the Red Baron, Granny Smith. The bite came from the underlying tragedy: lost spouses, lost jobs, pennilessness, homelessness, and death. Christopher Howse recaptures the lost Soho he once knew as home, its cellar cafés and butchers' shops, its villains, and its generosity. While it lasted, time in those smoky rooms always seemed to be half past ten, not long to closing time. As the author relates, he never laughed so much as he did in Soho in the Eighties.
Sounds cool, will definitely check it out later on today.Will be curious to hear how you go with the book. Maybe I’ll move on to that one after Nigel Richardson’s Soho in the 1950s book.
Mod
There's a fair amount about the people who inhabited Soho in the 1950s - including John Minton. Despite keeping himself out of it most of the time it's got quite a lot of vaguely self aggrandising tales, particularly of his time hanging out in The Coach and Horses with Jeffrey Bernard and co.
I am also struck by how really Soho in the Eighties is frequenlty a chronicle of a bunch of alcoholics. People who are in the pub at opening time and drinking through to the early evening before going home and then doing the same thing the next day. Any work being done in the morning, or late evening. We all like drinking and carousing but turning it into a lifestyle must surely mean it loses its lustre quickly.
It's also very media-centric. Jeffrey Bernard did a regular weekly column for the Spectator, the author has a long association with the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator, and he mentions people who worked at the Economist. Private Eye had a regular lunch at The Coach & Horses too.
During the 1980s I was a regular visitor to Soho however he never references any of my regular haunts - The Ship in Wardour Street, Cheapo Cheapo in Berwick Street, The John Snow, The Marquee, The Blue Posts, Gossips in Meard St, the Whisky a Go Go etc.
All that said, every time I pick it up I tend to get quite engrossed.
Amazing to read these comments and see that people are enjoying Frank's books. Frank was my Grandfather and I'm currently trying to get Soho Night & Day republished and then hopefully some of his other works. One particularly interesting thing is that I have a manuscript for his final memoir, written in the last three months of his life - looking back on his life and friends and his feelings about being seriously ill. It was rejected by publishers at the time for being too bleak but I feel like the 21st Century audience would get something out of it.
Are there any books of his in particular that you think need to be reintroduced to the world?
Mod
Yes, we are all big fans of your Grandfather's work round here.
Good luck with that manuscript. Please keep us posted. There'd be a few takers here.
My three favourites are...
Stand On Me
Banana Boy
Dodgem Greaser
Especially Banana Boy and Dodgem Greaser
Mark has read more than me so can give you an even more informed response
Do you have any memories of Frank? Or were you born after 1980?
Many grateful thanks for joining in the conversation, Joe --- yours is a very welcomed addition.Living in NYC, I’m a few hours behind you, so give me a few hours and I will absolutely chime in with my thoughts!
Thank you Mark and Nigey. Banana Boy and Dodgem Greaser are my faves too. I’m rereading Norman’s London at the moment, another good one. I came across this doc last night which has a bit about Soho Night and Day at 18mins. Also the flat shown here that Jeff Bernard lived in in the 80’s was Frank’s place - Jeff moved in for a while to keep Frank’s widow company after he died. He set fire to the kitchen (more than once) and eventually had to leave after one too many exploits. Frank’s widow Geraldine still lives there and the flat is much the same as when Frank lived there with her in the 70’s - https://youtu.be/doA__PRdZ-Q?t=260
I was born in 1979 so we crossed paths but only just and of course I was too young to remember him. I have many great stories from his family and friends though and his six grandchildren have been able to get to know him via his numerous memoirs.
Mod
Thanks again
I'll watch that vid a bit later
“Massive injections of advertising executives with pocket bleepers and a taste for cheap wine have finally killed off what was the best part of London.”Not sure I agree that Soho was the best part but then my association with it only began in about 1986/7, as a young advertising executive with an unquenchable thirst and an unlimited expense account. More or less the same time that they made this documentary.
LWT had a season ticket at Kettners and I lunched there at least once a week for 2 or 3 years and yet I’d completely forgotten about the gentleman who entertained us with increasingly breathless renditions of classic opera. He only ‘worked’ at lunchtime, his magic glass on the piano kept continuously refreshed in return for his services. By the evening I guess he was tucked up in bed just like Bernard.
The Coach and Horses I didn't frequent but somehow I did manage to catch Peter O'Toole in "Unwell" at the Apollo in Shaftsbury Avenue. The only thing I remember about it was that I laughed like a drain.
Just like you Nige, I used to drink all over Soho. I remember the portly Gallic proprietor of the French House (formerly the York Minster) who had an outrageous waxed moustache. I stopped going after he also shuffled off and someone then saw fit to remove the ornate chilled water tap which sat on the bar and with which customers could dilute their pastis according to their stage of inebriation - not that I drank pastis but it's the principle that matters.
If I had to choose my favourite London time and place it would probably be Brixton c.1981 but Soho was also a whole load of fun.
Thanks very much for the link.
Joe wrote: "Amazing to read these comments and see that people are enjoying Frank's books. Frank was my Grandfather..."There’s two ways of answering this, really -- the selfish way, in which I put forward the few remaining titles that I’ve yet to track down and add to my shelving, or the altruistic way, in which I put forward the titles most deserving to be rediscovered by readers. I’ll go with the latter, because I’ve been working to right my selfishness lately.
First, that’s very good news about Soho Night & Day. I found a copy here in NYC a few years ago, but immediately gifted it to a friend in London, Max Decharne, who turned me on to your grandfather in the first place. I’d love to have a copy for myself.
I agree with Nigel’s picks for Top Three. With the novels being relatively short, I’d love to see an omnibus or two published, but I guess that option wouldn’t be as attractive to you, financially.
I also loved Norman’s London and One Of Our Own. In short, I’d welcome the return to print of any of his works!
Have you ever met Max, as mentioned above? He might be of some use to you. Also, my immediate thought is that London Books might be very keen to work with you towards bringing the work back into print. John King, one of London Books’ two owners, is a dear friend of mine, and a hell of a lovely guy... happy to make the introduction, if that’d be a route you’d care to explore?
Most of all, I’m very happy to hear that your grandfather left a final memoir, and that it’s in your hands. Please keep us posted on any future news -- I’ll very much look forward to any updates!
Mod
Splendid reply Mark
The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society
Books mentioned in this topic
Stand On Me (other topics)Stand On Me (other topics)
Banana Boy (other topics)
Dodgem Greaser (other topics)
Soho in the Eighties (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Christopher Howse (other topics)Christopher Howse (other topics)
Jeffrey Bernard (other topics)
Frank Norman (other topics)
Christopher Howse (other topics)
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