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Selected Stories
No writer led as bizarre and eventful a life as the once celebrated Soho dandy Julian Maclaren-Ross (1912-64). In the course of 52 hectic years, he endured homelessness, alcoholism, drug addiction, and near-insanity. The world of Maclaren-Ross's writing tends to be the dingy, down-at-heel world of smoke-veiled bars, rented lodgings, blacked-out streets, and wartime army garrisons, first-hand experience lending his work a frisson of authenticity. Whether they're narrated in the breathless, slangy voice of an uneducated soldier, or the clipped cadences of a colonial 'expat', whether they're set on the French Riviera or wartime England, they're imprinted with Maclaren-Ross's unmistakable literary logo. The prevailing tone is casual, matter-of-fact, and laconic, with his characteristically mordant, humorous asides failing to conceal the melancholy that seeps through their harboiled surfaces.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 11, 2004
3 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Julian Maclaren-Ross
20 books39 followersThe English writer and dandy, Julian Maclaren-Ross (1912-64), is synonymous with the bohemian world of mid-twentieth-century Soho. There he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Dylan Thomas, Quentin Crisp, John Minton, Nina Hamnett, Joan Wyndham, Aleister Crowley, John Deakin, Augustus John, Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde. His theatrical dress sense — a sharp suit combined with his famous teddy-bear coat, aviator-style dark glasses and cigarette-holder — ensured that he stood out even in such flamboyant company. Intrigued by his stylish get-up and dissolute way of life, numerous writers, most notably Anthony Powell and Olivia Manning, used him as a model for characters in their fiction.
During the 1940s Maclaren-Ross was usually to be found in the Saloon Bar of the Wheatsheaf Pub on Rathbone Place, From the late 1930s until the late 1950s, this took over from the nearby Fitzroy Tavern as the most fashionable of the many watering-holes in North Soho, an area that has since become known as ‘Fitzrovia’.
Besides being one of Soho’s most famous denizens, Maclaren-Ross was the writer most responsible for defining its sleazy allure. He did so through a string of witty and influential short stories as well as his classic Memoirs of the Forties which also features memorable portraits of Graham Greene and Dylan Thomas.
But Maclaren-Ross is far more than just another sharp-eyed, literary bar-fly. During his lifetime he produced a substantial, astonishingly diverse body of writing which broke new ground in many genres. As an occasional film essayist, his writing about Alfred Hitchcock and film noir was well ahead of its time. As a short story writer and novelist, he introduced a new, vernacular, Americanised style to English fiction. As a writer of reportage, he anticipated Hunter S. Thomspon, Tom Wolfe and the other American ‘New Journalists’ of the 1960s. As a literary critic, he wrote with rare acuity about the writers as varied as Georges Simenon, Raymond Chandler, John Buchan, Frank Harris, Jean Cocteau, M.P. Sheil, Dashiell Hammett and Henry Green. As a memoirist, he was a forerunner of so many current writers who work in a similarly delicate, novelistic vein. As a literary parodist, he was praised by William Faulkner and P.G. Wodehouse. As a translator, he was very sensitive to stylistic nuances. And as a dramatist, he was hailed as ‘radio’s Alfred Hitchcock.’
His work was admired by writers Evelyn Waugh, John Betjeman, Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, Cyril Connolly, Anthony Powell, Olivia Manning, John Lehmann, Lucian Freud and others. Since his premature death at the age of only fifty-two, he has become a cult favourite among fellow writers such as Harold Pinter, Michael Holroyd, John King, Iain Sinclair, Jonathan Meades, Chris Petit, D.J. Taylor and Virginia Ironside. His reputation has also been kept alive through the campaigning of groups such as the Lost Club and the Sohemian Society.
In the wake of the publication in 2003 of Paul Willetts’s Fear and Loathing in Fitzrovia, the first biography of Maclaren-Ross, there has been an enormous resurgence of interest in both his life and work. The critical and commercial success of the biography triggered a major republication programme which has brought his touching, influential and often witty work to the attention of a wider public. Critics have been unanimous in their praise, hailing him as a major twentieth-century writer.
During the 1940s Maclaren-Ross was usually to be found in the Saloon Bar of the Wheatsheaf Pub on Rathbone Place, From the late 1930s until the late 1950s, this took over from the nearby Fitzroy Tavern as the most fashionable of the many watering-holes in North Soho, an area that has since become known as ‘Fitzrovia’.
Besides being one of Soho’s most famous denizens, Maclaren-Ross was the writer most responsible for defining its sleazy allure. He did so through a string of witty and influential short stories as well as his classic Memoirs of the Forties which also features memorable portraits of Graham Greene and Dylan Thomas.
But Maclaren-Ross is far more than just another sharp-eyed, literary bar-fly. During his lifetime he produced a substantial, astonishingly diverse body of writing which broke new ground in many genres. As an occasional film essayist, his writing about Alfred Hitchcock and film noir was well ahead of its time. As a short story writer and novelist, he introduced a new, vernacular, Americanised style to English fiction. As a writer of reportage, he anticipated Hunter S. Thomspon, Tom Wolfe and the other American ‘New Journalists’ of the 1960s. As a literary critic, he wrote with rare acuity about the writers as varied as Georges Simenon, Raymond Chandler, John Buchan, Frank Harris, Jean Cocteau, M.P. Sheil, Dashiell Hammett and Henry Green. As a memoirist, he was a forerunner of so many current writers who work in a similarly delicate, novelistic vein. As a literary parodist, he was praised by William Faulkner and P.G. Wodehouse. As a translator, he was very sensitive to stylistic nuances. And as a dramatist, he was hailed as ‘radio’s Alfred Hitchcock.’
His work was admired by writers Evelyn Waugh, John Betjeman, Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, Cyril Connolly, Anthony Powell, Olivia Manning, John Lehmann, Lucian Freud and others. Since his premature death at the age of only fifty-two, he has become a cult favourite among fellow writers such as Harold Pinter, Michael Holroyd, John King, Iain Sinclair, Jonathan Meades, Chris Petit, D.J. Taylor and Virginia Ironside. His reputation has also been kept alive through the campaigning of groups such as the Lost Club and the Sohemian Society.
In the wake of the publication in 2003 of Paul Willetts’s Fear and Loathing in Fitzrovia, the first biography of Maclaren-Ross, there has been an enormous resurgence of interest in both his life and work. The critical and commercial success of the biography triggered a major republication programme which has brought his touching, influential and often witty work to the attention of a wider public. Critics have been unanimous in their praise, hailing him as a major twentieth-century writer.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 30, 2017
Esto es un festival de talento. Uno tras otro, los cuentos de Maclaren-Ross seleccionados en este libro están llenos de humanidad y artes literarias. Es elegante y vulgar, sensorial y conceptual, niño y adulto, poeta y prosista. Sobre todo, es eficiente. Creo que es imposible mejorar la descripción de Chitarroni que piensa a Maclaren-Ross como un proto-beatnik urbano, un adelantado que sintetiza su tiempo -los 40 y 50 del XX entre UK y Francia- con predecesores y sucesores. Inquieto, ocurrente, impredecible. Siempre en movimiento, vagabundo, hiperlúcido en la ebriedad como los bums de Kerouac o los yonquis de Burroughs. Lo mejor, los cuentos sobre pandillas infantiles, inocentes y malignas a la vez. Un insight masivo, la infancia nunca termina, sólo se adapta un poco a la solemnidad alienada del mundo adulto.
February 9, 2025
Los detalles importantes se utilizan para graficar el entorno social y de época de cada relato, creando un contexto rico y auténtico. Lo que más resalta es que este libro es de esos que te mantienen enganchado, haciendo que las páginas avancen rápidamente, incluso podría leerse de una sentada."
Las historias se ambientan a mitad de siglo pasado, inmediata posguerra, ingleses y franceses, vencedores empobrecidos. Está el soldado traumado como en Atadura mortal, la crueldad de los niños en El sumo sacerdote de Buda y El lejano oeste, donde un niño de mejor posición es objeto de burlas y acoso.
Personajes nómadas que apenas subsisten.
El prólogo extenso de Chitarroni queda descolocado al querer mechar palabras poco usuales en cada oración cuando el autor del libro en toda la colección de cuentos y sospecho en casi toda su carrera, omite estas florituras para crear un texto claro y conciso de alcance directo.
Las historias se ambientan a mitad de siglo pasado, inmediata posguerra, ingleses y franceses, vencedores empobrecidos. Está el soldado traumado como en Atadura mortal, la crueldad de los niños en El sumo sacerdote de Buda y El lejano oeste, donde un niño de mejor posición es objeto de burlas y acoso.
Personajes nómadas que apenas subsisten.
El prólogo extenso de Chitarroni queda descolocado al querer mechar palabras poco usuales en cada oración cuando el autor del libro en toda la colección de cuentos y sospecho en casi toda su carrera, omite estas florituras para crear un texto claro y conciso de alcance directo.
October 17, 2019
Tostadas de jabon...reune 11 cuentos, mas cortos que largos, de Julian Maclaren-Ross, un escritor británico fallecido en 1964 de quien, perdon mi ignorancia, no había escuchado creo que ni siquiera nombrar y que me sorprendió gratamente con un estilo muy elegante, con un ritmo para llevar la narración casi perfecto y una prosa enriquecida por mucho dialogo que, me parece a mi, maneja como pocos, resaltando mucho el carácter de estos personajes tan viscerales que quiere mostrarnos en sus cuentos.
Los relatos que mas me gustaron son “Tostadas de jabón”, “Un ligero incidente en Madrás”, “El sumo sacerdote de Buda” y “Nichevo”, aunque también disfrute mucho la lectura del resto de los cuentos. Un libro muy recomendable.
Los relatos que mas me gustaron son “Tostadas de jabón”, “Un ligero incidente en Madrás”, “El sumo sacerdote de Buda” y “Nichevo”, aunque también disfrute mucho la lectura del resto de los cuentos. Un libro muy recomendable.
March 31, 2025
Julian Maclaren-Ross was clearly a deeply talented writer and the fact he got a significant amount finished and published is surprising given his well documented lifestyle, which involved a precarious indebted, transient and often inebriated existence revolving around the drinking establishments of Fitzrovia. He also spent time on the south coast with an unsuccessful attempt to make money as a vacuum cleaner salesman!
Many of his short stories draw from his own life. He captures the essence and language of very different stratas of society in a very convincing and remarkable way. Above all. his way of capturing the absurdities of life is often extremely funny. A particular theme is around army life which shows another side to the conventional patriotic view of a well run machine. JMR captures an organisation that is often extremely dysfunctional, bureaucratic and apparently not short of hopeless cases and malingerers.
A funny entertaining set of stories deserving of a bigger readership.
Many of his short stories draw from his own life. He captures the essence and language of very different stratas of society in a very convincing and remarkable way. Above all. his way of capturing the absurdities of life is often extremely funny. A particular theme is around army life which shows another side to the conventional patriotic view of a well run machine. JMR captures an organisation that is often extremely dysfunctional, bureaucratic and apparently not short of hopeless cases and malingerers.
A funny entertaining set of stories deserving of a bigger readership.
November 24, 2018
Con una pluma exquisita y un lenguaje elegante el autor hace viajar la mente a los diferentes escenarios; las historias suceden en Londres, India o Francia.
En esta selección de relatos aparecen pandillas de niños crueles y con un cinismo a más no poder. Un amor fugaz bastante desopilante. Reuniones en pubs de mala muerte. Un par de cuentos desopilantes otros absurdos y por último aquellos que retratan la sociedad de una época tanto en la manera de pensar como en la forma de vivir el día a día.
Sin dudas una joya para tener en la biblioteca.
Reseña:
https://bosquedeliteratura.blogspot.c...
En esta selección de relatos aparecen pandillas de niños crueles y con un cinismo a más no poder. Un amor fugaz bastante desopilante. Reuniones en pubs de mala muerte. Un par de cuentos desopilantes otros absurdos y por último aquellos que retratan la sociedad de una época tanto en la manera de pensar como en la forma de vivir el día a día.
Sin dudas una joya para tener en la biblioteca.
Reseña:
https://bosquedeliteratura.blogspot.c...
September 5, 2016
Poignancy tinged with melancholy.Very good stories of love and loss and maybe something else.A great unsung hero of the literary 1940s.
February 27, 2022
Entretenido conjunto de relatos, todos breves y muy variados, pero que logran una sensación de unidad estilística. No se si salieron así originalmente o la selección del recopilador de la Bestia Equilátera le dio sentido a estos relatos sueltos. En cualquier caso, esta muy bien estructurado.
McLaren Ross es un escritor ingles de posguerra, bastante olvidado hoy día, pero parece que tuvo su momento de fama y gloria, no solo por ser un gran escritor sino también por tener una vida bastante excéntrica.
Se lee en un día, no solo por lo breve, sino también por lo ameno.
Lo único que critico al rescate maravilloso que hace la editorial, es el prologo que le agrega Luis Chitarroni, porque McLaren Ross posee una prosa tan sencilla y clara, que la complejidad del prologo queda desubicada.
Son tan pocos los datos que se conocen de la vida del autor que para agregarle volumen Chitarroni intenta un malabarismo de palabras que están mas cerca del onanismo intelectual que de brindar alguna información vital sobre el autor y sobre lo que vamos a leer.
McLaren Ross es un escritor ingles de posguerra, bastante olvidado hoy día, pero parece que tuvo su momento de fama y gloria, no solo por ser un gran escritor sino también por tener una vida bastante excéntrica.
Se lee en un día, no solo por lo breve, sino también por lo ameno.
Lo único que critico al rescate maravilloso que hace la editorial, es el prologo que le agrega Luis Chitarroni, porque McLaren Ross posee una prosa tan sencilla y clara, que la complejidad del prologo queda desubicada.
Son tan pocos los datos que se conocen de la vida del autor que para agregarle volumen Chitarroni intenta un malabarismo de palabras que están mas cerca del onanismo intelectual que de brindar alguna información vital sobre el autor y sobre lo que vamos a leer.
December 15, 2022
Por momentos cuesta adaptarse a una escritura tan (aparentemente) despojada e impulsiva, construida sobre los diálogos y con una querencia por los remates anticlimáticos en cada relato, pero piezas como Tosatadas de Jabón, Mandrágora o Las nieves de ayer son perfectas para no perder de vista la necesidad de entregarse al autor con confianza ciega y no sacar conclusiones hasta llegada la última página, el paseo merece toda la pena del mundo.
El relamido epílogo del editor resulta poco interesante, casi un baldazo de agua fría
El relamido epílogo del editor resulta poco interesante, casi un baldazo de agua fría
July 19, 2018
Un grupo de cuentos muy entretenidos, que llevan un buen ritmo, amable. El autor, y sus narradores, siempre son generosos con el lector.
Creo que la figura de Maclaren-Ross permea la mayoría de los relatos. El dandy inglés de la posguerra que vive entre bares, que rememora Francia e India o una anécdota de un grupo de soldados.
Los que más me gustaron: "Un ligero incidente en Madrás", "El Sumo Sacerdote de Buda", "Nichevo", "Una Noche Tremenda"
Creo que la figura de Maclaren-Ross permea la mayoría de los relatos. El dandy inglés de la posguerra que vive entre bares, que rememora Francia e India o una anécdota de un grupo de soldados.
Los que más me gustaron: "Un ligero incidente en Madrás", "El Sumo Sacerdote de Buda", "Nichevo", "Una Noche Tremenda"
August 13, 2020
A very diverse range of stories. MacLaren-Ross has a real talent to write from a variety of perspectives in a convincing way. I particularly liked his tales of postwar Fitzrovia and Soho which give an evocative sense of place.
January 27, 2022
lindos cuentos pero para mi gusto un poco aburridos.
January 9, 2015
Ácido, satírico y con un ritmo ideal. Lo leí durante en un micro de larga distancia, durante el transcurso del viaje anocheció y terminé los últimos cuentos valiéndome del celular como linterna. La luz del colectivo no funcionaba pero no fue necesaria como tampoco la ruta como distracción.
Policías, polémicas interpretaciones paganas y niños que sucumben ante un romance entre árboles y moretones.
Policías, polémicas interpretaciones paganas y niños que sucumben ante un romance entre árboles y moretones.
March 31, 2016
I confess I was expecting the usual litany of drunken "artistic" Soho goings-on, but this collection of stories proved icher than that. I'm usually wary of people trying to replicate what they believe to be working-class speech, but I think Maclaren-Ross pulls it off, especially in the stories set in the Army. Several made me laugh out loud, which was unexpected. I can only assume that the earthy language caused quite a stir when they first appeared.
October 15, 2012
Una recopilación de cuentos que mantienen un estilo muy peculiar y diferente a lo que uno esta acostumbrado a leer durante un cuento. Sin embargo logran captar de manera muy clara la atención y dejan mucho al juicio y a la imaginación del lector ya que sus finales suelen ser muy abiertos a discutir. Creo que es un pionero en este estilo y es muy digno de leerse varias veces. septiembre 2012
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews