Tuesday 7 January 2014

William Burroughs Centenary


William Seward Burroughs was born 100 years ago this February 5th.  To mark this auspicious occasion Bill Redwood asked me if I would like to repeat a walk we did together on the controversial writer for The London Adventure on 10th September 2005 (was it really that long ago?).  I readily agreed, although with slight misgivings about the possible weather conditions - but this is London after all, so there should be places to shelter.  That walk attracted a very varied and interesting crowd, including one or two who had met the great man, so I'll be interested to see who turns up this time.  On that occasion we started in Earls Court, where WSB lived in the early 1960s; there was a wonderfully Burroughsian moment outside the Empress State Building - on the site of one of his residences - where the large group put the security guards in a panic and we were escorted a 'safe distance' away to deliver out talk - the subject 'CONTROL'.  This time we can only cover the West End, although that will be in considerably greater detail than we had time for previously, with a number of places we didn't have time to see before.  At the time of writing there are still places left - must be booked in advance.  Details here.  If there's enough interest we may do the full version in the summer. Pic above WSB and Brion Gysin at Dalmeny Court, 8 Duke St, St James's.

There's also an event in Bloomington Indiana, which looks great, but there's no way I'd be able to get there.

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