Author Archives: Miles

The European Beat Studies Network conference on Burroughs ended on September 4th. I missed a few amusing pictures of the proceedings, so here’s one of the EBSN group, wearing Burroughs masks, outside Bill’s old flat in Dalmeny Court, Duke Street … Continue reading →

July 19th was the annual Soho Fete. This is a village event, not aimed at tourists. Soho is a village despite being in Central London and a surprising number of people live here or near here and know each other. … Continue reading →

Jesse Goodman and his friends had been working hard for several months to put on the London end of the celebration of Allen Ginsberg’s 100th anniversary. There were other events in San Francisco, New York and in Continental Europe. In … Continue reading →

There were a few nice meals later in the month. Camila dropped by for a light lunch; in town for a Paul Simon concert. Another day Jesse, Maxi and Antonio came over to discuss the upcoming Ginsberg celebrations. I made … Continue reading →

Back in Britain after Rome and Paris and the usual culture-shock after going to my local supermarket, negotiating aisles of crisps and processed snacks, only to find that they don’t even have any parsley. (Local Sainsbury’s and Tesco.) What crap … Continue reading →

It is always wonderful to arrive in Paris. If I could afford it I would live there. It has changed almost beyond recognition since John Dunbar and I visited in 1966 for me to buy the remaining stock from Gaït … Continue reading →

I went twice to the Seurat show at the Courtauld, the second time with Jill, when we ran into Olivier Weil who is curating the Gysin show in Paris. He was intrigued to see that none of the pictures had … Continue reading →

On February 17 we flew down to Luxor, the ancient Thebes. It’s a short flight, just under an hour. We couldn’t get into the Nefertiti but booked the hotel next door. This used to be the Suzanne, but now has … Continue reading →

Off we go on a new trip and the sign on the seat back of the British Airways flight to Cairo suggested a very intellectual clientele indeed. I tucked my copy of Waguih Ghali’s Beer in the Snooker Club in … Continue reading →

Though hardly a dry January, life was relatively quiet as we recovered from Victor’s visit and the Christmas festivities. Marsha returned to Norwich, I took down the Christmas decorations and Hannah and I continued work on the picture research for … Continue reading →