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More Low Life
- GenresNonfiction
Paperback
First published October 13, 1989
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About the author
Jeffrey Bernard
10 books4 followersJeffrey Bernard was a British journalist, best known for his weekly column "Low Life" in the Spectator magazine, and also notorious for a feckless and chaotic career and life of alcohol abuse. He became associated with the louche and bohemian atmosphere that existed in London's Soho district. He was later immortalised in the comical play Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell by Keith Waterhouse.
Born in London, the son of Oliver Percy Bernard and Dora Hodges (1896–1950), an opera singer, he was the brother of Oliver Bernard, a poet, and Bruce Bonus Bernard, an art critic and photographer. Though named Jerry by his parents, at an early age he adopted Jeffrey. He attended Pangbourne Naval College for two years before his parents responded to the college's protest that he was "psychologically unsuitable for public school life".
Even while at school, Bernard had begun to explore Soho and Fitzrovia with his brother Bruce. Seduced by the area's lurid glamour, he took a variety of menial jobs there but still managed to build a circle that embraced Dylan Thomas, Francis Bacon, John Minton, Nina Hamnett, Daniel Farson and the lowlife of Bohemian London. Elizabeth Smart suggested that he try journalism and he started to write about his interest in horse racing in Queen magazine.
His reputation grew and in 1973 he started writing a weekly column for the Sporting Life, being poached by The Spectator in 1975. His column was described by Jonathan Meades as a "suicide note in weekly instalments" and principally chronicled, in a faux-naif style, his daily round of intoxication and dissipation in The Coach and Horses public house and its fateful consequences. His lifestyle had an inevitable effect on his health and reliability, and the magazine often had to post the notice "Jeffrey Bernard is unwell" in place of his column. So well known was he that the catch phrase "Jeff bin in?", as used in the Private Eye strip cartoon "The Regulars", was recognised as a reference to him by readers.
A recording of him saying "I'm one of the few people who lives what's called the 'Low Life'" was sampled by British band New Order and placed at the start of the track This Time of Night on their album Low-Life. Bernard apparently threatened to sue, leading to the sample being "removed" (by reducing the volume level to almost inaudible). The sample remained, and is quite easily discerned by increasing the volume on a CD of the track.
Though married four times, he often remarked, only half in jest, that alcohol was the other woman. Over time his drinking affected his health more seriously; he was hospitalised for detoxification, he suffered from pancreatitis and then diabetes. Ultimately his right leg was amputated. He died at his home in Soho of renal failure after voluntarily refusing further treatment by dialysis. Growing weary of his illnesses and yet unable to stop himself drinking, he had discussed 'taking himself out' over a period and in his final farewell Spectator column he discussed how he had discovered how to do that by ingesting bananas, whose potassium content was toxic in his condition.His gravestone lies at the top of racehorse trainer Barry Hills gallops in Lambourn, Berkshire.
Born in London, the son of Oliver Percy Bernard and Dora Hodges (1896–1950), an opera singer, he was the brother of Oliver Bernard, a poet, and Bruce Bonus Bernard, an art critic and photographer. Though named Jerry by his parents, at an early age he adopted Jeffrey. He attended Pangbourne Naval College for two years before his parents responded to the college's protest that he was "psychologically unsuitable for public school life".
Even while at school, Bernard had begun to explore Soho and Fitzrovia with his brother Bruce. Seduced by the area's lurid glamour, he took a variety of menial jobs there but still managed to build a circle that embraced Dylan Thomas, Francis Bacon, John Minton, Nina Hamnett, Daniel Farson and the lowlife of Bohemian London. Elizabeth Smart suggested that he try journalism and he started to write about his interest in horse racing in Queen magazine.
His reputation grew and in 1973 he started writing a weekly column for the Sporting Life, being poached by The Spectator in 1975. His column was described by Jonathan Meades as a "suicide note in weekly instalments" and principally chronicled, in a faux-naif style, his daily round of intoxication and dissipation in The Coach and Horses public house and its fateful consequences. His lifestyle had an inevitable effect on his health and reliability, and the magazine often had to post the notice "Jeffrey Bernard is unwell" in place of his column. So well known was he that the catch phrase "Jeff bin in?", as used in the Private Eye strip cartoon "The Regulars", was recognised as a reference to him by readers.
A recording of him saying "I'm one of the few people who lives what's called the 'Low Life'" was sampled by British band New Order and placed at the start of the track This Time of Night on their album Low-Life. Bernard apparently threatened to sue, leading to the sample being "removed" (by reducing the volume level to almost inaudible). The sample remained, and is quite easily discerned by increasing the volume on a CD of the track.
Though married four times, he often remarked, only half in jest, that alcohol was the other woman. Over time his drinking affected his health more seriously; he was hospitalised for detoxification, he suffered from pancreatitis and then diabetes. Ultimately his right leg was amputated. He died at his home in Soho of renal failure after voluntarily refusing further treatment by dialysis. Growing weary of his illnesses and yet unable to stop himself drinking, he had discussed 'taking himself out' over a period and in his final farewell Spectator column he discussed how he had discovered how to do that by ingesting bananas, whose potassium content was toxic in his condition.His gravestone lies at the top of racehorse trainer Barry Hills gallops in Lambourn, Berkshire.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 21, 2024
At some point in the late 1970s the Spectator had the brilliant idea of juxtaposing 2 diaries, 'High Life' by wealthy socialite bigot & porridge-brain Taki Theodoracopolos & 'Low Life' by Jeffrey Bernard. These are the collated diaries of Bernard & are a wonderful read.
They are not really a diary because a lot Bernard's life was not worth reporting. He got up, went to 'The Coach & Horses', drank until he was comatose & staggered back to bed. The articles are mostly a mix of Bernard's old, but always funny, anecdotes, like the 'Great Soho Cat race' or the Irish trainer who played 'Find the lady' with his new-born triplets & then shuffled them, his thoughts on good times passed & his musings on life.
Re-reading these, I was surprised that Bernard was often referred to as a humorist. Certainly, they can be very funny & there are a lot of zingers, 'In 1960 or thereabouts when The Beatles & feminism destroyed the civilisation I was rather fond of', or 'I could stuff a pillow with the confetti that has been thrown at me, & could I sleep easily on it? No'. Referring to a time when he was forced to take part in group therapy while 'drying out' Bernard says he became so enraged he attempted to throttle another group member 'It was quite delightful. Forty years of anger out of the system in a few seconds'. He then brilliantly adds 'I'd quite like to meet that man again because some subsequent anger has been building up'.
Even when Bernard is funny, the humour is dark. A lot of it isn't funny at all but deeply melancholic. The term 'sad alcoholic' is often thrown around, but Bernard was a sad, or perhaps more truly a saddened alcoholic. Insofar as his writing has one theme it is loss. His wives who left him, his daughter who makes a reappearance in these diaries, but who he hardly saw from 3 to 17, his friends who keep dying. He is a man surrounded by loss & by remorse. 'remorse wakes me up every morning & puts me to bed every night & ,lo, though I run through the valley of Oxford St to the Coach & Horses, she is always by my side'. He even gets blanked by Anthony Burgess!
It is notable that Beryl Bainbridge wrote the introduction to this collection & that there is a quote from Graham Greene on the front. They knew that Bernard was a proper writer. Even in the 1980s Low Life was the sort of writing that you couldn't expect on Fleet St. Now, of course, no journalist could attempt to write work of this quality. You might as well ask them to walk on the ceiling.
Elegiac, strangely poetic, sometimes very funny, always deeply humane, & always beautifully written. Bernard may not have written much but the quality of it deserves respect.
They are not really a diary because a lot Bernard's life was not worth reporting. He got up, went to 'The Coach & Horses', drank until he was comatose & staggered back to bed. The articles are mostly a mix of Bernard's old, but always funny, anecdotes, like the 'Great Soho Cat race' or the Irish trainer who played 'Find the lady' with his new-born triplets & then shuffled them, his thoughts on good times passed & his musings on life.
Re-reading these, I was surprised that Bernard was often referred to as a humorist. Certainly, they can be very funny & there are a lot of zingers, 'In 1960 or thereabouts when The Beatles & feminism destroyed the civilisation I was rather fond of', or 'I could stuff a pillow with the confetti that has been thrown at me, & could I sleep easily on it? No'. Referring to a time when he was forced to take part in group therapy while 'drying out' Bernard says he became so enraged he attempted to throttle another group member 'It was quite delightful. Forty years of anger out of the system in a few seconds'. He then brilliantly adds 'I'd quite like to meet that man again because some subsequent anger has been building up'.
Even when Bernard is funny, the humour is dark. A lot of it isn't funny at all but deeply melancholic. The term 'sad alcoholic' is often thrown around, but Bernard was a sad, or perhaps more truly a saddened alcoholic. Insofar as his writing has one theme it is loss. His wives who left him, his daughter who makes a reappearance in these diaries, but who he hardly saw from 3 to 17, his friends who keep dying. He is a man surrounded by loss & by remorse. 'remorse wakes me up every morning & puts me to bed every night & ,lo, though I run through the valley of Oxford St to the Coach & Horses, she is always by my side'. He even gets blanked by Anthony Burgess!
It is notable that Beryl Bainbridge wrote the introduction to this collection & that there is a quote from Graham Greene on the front. They knew that Bernard was a proper writer. Even in the 1980s Low Life was the sort of writing that you couldn't expect on Fleet St. Now, of course, no journalist could attempt to write work of this quality. You might as well ask them to walk on the ceiling.
Elegiac, strangely poetic, sometimes very funny, always deeply humane, & always beautifully written. Bernard may not have written much but the quality of it deserves respect.
August 16, 2018
Hilarious in every way.
March 17, 2024
As the cover says, I have never been bored by Jeffrey Bernard.
April 19, 2007
You must read low life first- then this, jeffrey sinks into drunken oblivion but he did it his way, going through wives, vodka and cigarettes at an alarming rate. He must have been a frustrating but facinating man to know. His short stories first printed in the 'Spectator' give an insight into the world of Soho, horse racing, journalism and booze.
January 17, 2010
Couldn't have lived with him but his life sounded good fun if selfish
October 15, 2013
I found this book on a fence walking down to Bondi Beach. It was dreadful but I found myself liking it/him nonetheless.
November 29, 2015
Not every column is a winner, but there are the usual low life delights detailed here along with some stunning insights, jokes, slurs, and ramblings. In short: a good time.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews