Back from Egypt and the social round takes over. Theo and Minako took me to Mon Plaisir, one of my favourite restaurants, for my birthday. There was a private view of the Leigh Bowery show at Tate Modern. Hannah Watson, who has just closed her T.J. Boulting gallery to concentrate on Trolly Books publishing and I went with her. I wrote an essay in the catalogue when she put on a Bowery show at the Fitzroy Chapel. Leigh’s work is unique, wonderful and startling even now, thirty years later. Well worth seeing. I’m afraid some of the costumes the guests wore seemed a little sad. Hannah appeared to know half the people there and it was fun watching her take pictures. Clearly closing the gallery has been a weight off her back. Later in the month a very pleasant lunch with Tom Neurath at the Palestinian Restaurant in Golborne Road together with Terry Wilson, Luzius Martin and Richard Adams, very much the old gang. 

The October Gallery were having a William Burroughs show, which turned into a William Burroughs festival with talks and film-shows. Burroughs expert Oliver Harris did an in-conversation with Kathelin Gray, one of the directors of the gallery, who knew Burroughs old. I lent a couple of paintings for the show. The private view was on March 5, and I was able to chat to John Dunbar, who I hadn’t seen in some time, and and his son Nicholas, who I hadn’t seen in decades. Nicholas’s mother was Marianne Faithfull whom I first met back in 1965 with John when we were first starting Indica Books and Gallery, who was then married to her. I even went with John to her hospital bed at the London Clinic where she was confined with Nicholas. 

About a year ago there was a short festival at the Horse Hospital called Allen Ginsberg in London. As Marianne knew Allen very well, I asked if she would read Howl. She and Allen and I had many fun evenings together over the years both here and in New York. She was initially enthusiastic, but as I expected, decided against it as she was already in a wheelchair and there were no proper facilities there for her. We have lost a remarkable woman. Here she is with her mum who used to steal all our cigarettes and one that my old friend Hoppy took in 1965.

Soho still has its attractions, and a lunch at the Academy Club turned into an afternoon of drinking with my new friend Lucy who makes TV films. She recently published two books by a homeless alcoholic called Nigel Staley: Sleeping Around (2023) and Hostel (2024). I initially thought that he must have dictated them to here but no, they are entirely his. He is lucid, inciteful with a good eye for the minute particulars. Then he loses it and goes on a binge and loses everything which, when he recovers, he describes in detail. It is a bit uncomfortable to read because we all know these people; it seems so familiar, the unrolled sleeping bag and pathetic pile of possessions in a doorway or the lone drunk, standing in the road, shouting obscenities at the traffic. I hope he gets a proper publisher one day as it is really good writing and, as they say, ‘painfully authentic.’ 

Suzy Treister had a nice opening at Annely Juda followed by an Indian banquet at Roti Chai that was fun. There’s an interview with her in the spring edition of Tate Etc. magazine. Andrew Wilson and I did an in-conversation as part of the William Burroughs festival at the October Gallery that sold-out – but that was because the tickets were free. However, there were people standing and I didn’t see anyone leave. My old friend the art critic and writer Raymond Foye was over from New York for a brief visit, and we managed to have a drink afterwards and he came to dinner. He has helped so many writers and artists over the years, particularly the more difficult ones like Gregory Corso, Herbert Huncke, John Wieners and Harry Smith. He brought with him a pile of Hanuman Press books, which he published, none of which I had, so that was a brilliant present. I hadn’t seen him in over a decade so there was a lot of gossip to catch up on. Here’s Lucy, Suzy, Raymond and me.

A quick follow-up to Theo and my trip to Egypt. In the British Museum there is a fragment from the beard of the Sphinx. It is not from the original 4th dynasty ruler Khafra but probably comes from the repaired beard made a 1000 years later by Thutmose IV (1400-1390 BC). Other similar fragments are in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. I had to check it out. While we were in Egypt, Mina was in Japan and brought back a beer with a portrait of Theo on it.