Rum, Bum and Concertina

by George Melly

The outrageous new volume of autobiography by George Melly, ex-Able Seaman, sometime anarchist, connoisseur of Surrealist Art, spearhead of fringe Revivalist Jazz, blues vocalist, writer, pop, TV and film critic - and much else besides.

Genres: Biography, Autobiography, Nonfiction

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 31, 1977

About the author

Alan George Heywood Melly was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer, and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for The Observer; he also lectured on art history, with an emphasis on surrealism.

Reviews

[Graham Power · Rating 5 out of 5]

This hilarious memoir, by the flamboyant and free-spirited British jazz singer George Melly, is ostensibly about his time as a Royal Navy conscript at the end of World War II, but that’s not the half of it. Despite having been to a posh boarding school he was not considered officer material and spent his time in the Navy as an Ordinary Seaman on the Lower Deck. In fact, due to an administrative cock-up, he spent the first two years of his service onshore. This gave him plenty of time to hang out with the London surrealist group, become an habitué of Soho, make friends with the likes of Quentin Crisp and Lucian Freud, attend anarchist meetings, and take part in orgies in the houses of gay aristocrats. When young Melly finally set sail the war was safely over though he did eventually get into a spot of bother when a Warrant Officer discovered his collection of anarchist literature. Discovered is actually the wrong word as Melly, characteristically, had made no attempt to conceal the pamphlets.

Similarly, he made no attempt to conceal anything in his several volumes of memoirs. Melly was an unusually candid autobiographer with an admirable willingness to highlight aspects of his behaviour which other memoirists might prefer not to mention. I first read this as a teenager, shortly after it came out, and remember finding much of it deliciously naughty. Inevitably, it seems rather less so now, but remains as funny as it ever was. This time round I think I better appreciated just how well-written it is. Melly captures the period detail with some skill, and conveys an exhilarating sense of a young man discovering the possibilities of life, as well as casting an occasionally quizzical eye on the pretensions and self-deceptions of his former self.

This is a wonderfully entertaining book. ‘Good time George’, as he was known, was such an amiable writer; his truly unconventional and libertarian spirit shine from every page.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hoot. The world is a lesser place now he's gone.

[Tim Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second of Melly's volumes of autobiography (both chronologically and in publication), this sees our hero, aged 18, enlist in the navy. Normally, as a public school man (Stowe) he would have gone into officer training, but it was quite clear to all, even in the last stages of the War, that Good Time George was not officer material, and he spent most of his time on land, in various training camps, as the senior service tried to find some use for him. He seems to have spent most of the time hanging out with the Surrealists and other interesting folk, such as Quentin Crisp and Lucien Freud, experimenting sexually and generally having a high old time. He regularly throws in a colourful anecdote, for example:

"Sheep-shagging in sparsely populated areas is a well-established naval myth and there was an apocryphal but much repeated story that at Scapa Flow during the war a rating accused of the practice told his Commander that he had mistaken the sheep for a WREN in a duffle coat."

Great fun.

[Frankie Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

a rich intricate life.

[Tim Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second of Melly's volumes of autobiography (both chronologically and in publication), this sees our hero, aged 18, enlist in the navy. Normally, as a public school man (Stowe) he would have gone into officer training, but it was quite clear to all, even in the last stages of the War, that Good Time George was not officer material, and he spent most of his time on land, in various training camps, as the senior service tried to find some use for him. He seems to have spent most of the time hanging out with the Surrealists and other interesting folk, such as Quentin Crisp and Lucien Freud, experimenting sexually and generally having a high old time. He regularly throws in a colourful anecdote, for example:

"Sheep-shagging in sparsely populated areas is a well-established naval myth and there was an apocryphal but much repeated story that at Scapa Flow during the war a rating accused of the practice told his Commander that he had mistaken the sheep for a WREN in a duffle coat."

Great fun.

[Randomother · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sail the high seas with George Melly.

[Ben Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Melly's descriptive and unabashed descriptions of the places and people he saw made me yearn to visit those times. Just wonderful.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5