Entertaining, shocking, uproarious, hilarious . . . like eavesdropping on a wake, as the mourners get gradually more drunk and tell ever more outrageous stories' Sunday Times
This is the definitive history of London's most notorious drinking den, the Colony Room Club in Soho. It’s a hair-raising romp through the underbelly of the post-war scene: during its sixty-year history, more romances, more deaths, more horrors and more sex scandals took place in the Colony than anywhere else.
Tales from the Colony Room is an oral biography, consisting of previously unpublished and long-lost interviews with the characters who were central to the scene, giving the reader a flavour of what it was like to frequent the Club. With a glass in hand you’ll move through the decades listening to personal reminiscences, opinions and vitriol, from the authentic voices of those who were actually there. On your voyage through Soho’s lost bohemia, you’ll be served a drink by
James Bond,
sip champagne with
Francis Bacon
, queue for the loo with
Christine Keeler
, go racing with
Jeffrey Bernard
, get laid with
Lucian Freud
, kill time with
Doctor Who
, pick a fight with
Frank Norman
and pass out with P
eter Langan
. All with a stellar supporting cast including
Peter O’Toole, George Melly, Suggs, Lisa Stansfield
,
Dylan Thomas, Jay Landesman, Sarah Lucas, Damien Hirst
and many, many more.