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Reach for the Ground: Downhill Struggle of Jeffrey Bernard
An irresistible collection of the best of Jeffrey Bernard’s celebrated Low Life contributions to the Spectator. The column was once described as ‘a suicide note in weekly installments and became a national institution whose passing was noted with great sorrow. Peter O’Toole’s affectionate introduction recalls a forty-year-old friendship, and three sparkling autobiographical essays encapsulate the defining experiences of Bernard’s life.
176 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1996
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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 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 16, 2016
[4.5] The world-weariness of the alcoholic columnist's short last collection is all the more resonant for this being the third book I've read about or by him. I'm nowhere near as fond of the column format, by anyone at all, as I used to be, but these have some great lines and Bernard's ramblings - surprisingly, more coherent and self-aware than plenty of those in the earlier Low Life - prove very readable when sleep-deprived.
Whilst I find disability / long term illness blogs merely augment gloom, books about decrepitude by people who've had interesting lives work out as much more companionable. (See also Christine Brooke Rose's Life, End of amongst others.) Here, Bernard has become somewhat bored by the monotony of the drinking life in Soho - sadly only when it's too late to travel much, with an amputated leg and recurrent pancreatitis; he's lionised due to the play Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell and everyone is giving him bottles of booze as presents when he'd prefer some more money to pay the rent instead. The crisp phrasing and dry wit is what saves this every time: hardly anyone could compare being stuck in the house, ill, to a prison sentence and actually sound amusing and fresh - JB structures it so it does. His first-hand accounts of repeated stints in hospital for common, chronic problems (and the NHS under John Major's Tories) are the sort of thing rarely read above the line, and almost never so well told.
As ever, Bernard is not for the easily offended, although you can see him trying, occasionally and comically haphazardly, to move with the times.
May 2015
Whilst I find disability / long term illness blogs merely augment gloom, books about decrepitude by people who've had interesting lives work out as much more companionable. (See also Christine Brooke Rose's Life, End of amongst others.) Here, Bernard has become somewhat bored by the monotony of the drinking life in Soho - sadly only when it's too late to travel much, with an amputated leg and recurrent pancreatitis; he's lionised due to the play Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell and everyone is giving him bottles of booze as presents when he'd prefer some more money to pay the rent instead. The crisp phrasing and dry wit is what saves this every time: hardly anyone could compare being stuck in the house, ill, to a prison sentence and actually sound amusing and fresh - JB structures it so it does. His first-hand accounts of repeated stints in hospital for common, chronic problems (and the NHS under John Major's Tories) are the sort of thing rarely read above the line, and almost never so well told.
As ever, Bernard is not for the easily offended, although you can see him trying, occasionally and comically haphazardly, to move with the times.
May 2015
November 27, 2019
Reach for the Ground: The Downhill Struggle of Jeffrey Bernard is a sad little book. "Unhappiness is one of the best kept secrets in the world..." Numerous pithy observations about the commonplace existence of a man killing time and himself, yet who made a living out of being a celebrated alcoholic.
November 5, 2017
There are many ways not to fulfilll the promise you are - drinking, gambling & womanizing sounds like a fun one. But when it comes to the end, cliche overcomes and even a bitter sarcastic bohemian will find something to be regretful. Even if he denies it to the last breath.
May 28, 2021
A world-weary look at life from the bottom of a glass. Nobody made dissipation an art form like Bernard managed to do.
March 21, 2013
Quite auto biographical by its very nature.A compendium of his columns.
The man is self obsessed as am sure most old school hacks are/where and with vodka and fags being his staple diet along with depression, I guess it is as it was expected to be. Some amusing anecdotes and some wry comments along with one liners like "It's just another one of gods custard pies" The book was good but not in the "biblical sense" lol
The man is self obsessed as am sure most old school hacks are/where and with vodka and fags being his staple diet along with depression, I guess it is as it was expected to be. Some amusing anecdotes and some wry comments along with one liners like "It's just another one of gods custard pies" The book was good but not in the "biblical sense" lol
February 23, 2016
A bit of a frustrating read, because although there are funny lines and I enjoyed any mention of Peter O'Tooke and Soho, you ultimately feel it's such a sad waste of a life which could have been finer and given more happiness.
1-12-11
Rereading 10-02-16
Funny reading, but this still makes me feel sad for JB.
1-12-11
Rereading 10-02-16
Funny reading, but this still makes me feel sad for JB.
June 22, 2014
As someone who quit drinking in 2001 I can readily identify with Mr Barnard's alcohol problems. I pulled myself together, he didn't. A waste of a talent but what a talent!!
An excellent book and essential reading for anyone who may feel that their alcohol consumption might just be an issue...
An excellent book and essential reading for anyone who may feel that their alcohol consumption might just be an issue...
August 10, 2015
Fantastic writing, poignant, witty at times, pathetic. A glorious collection from one of the greatest columnists in the English language.
February 22, 2011
Funny book from a thoughtful alcoholic.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews