In the 1980s Daniel Farson published Soho in the Fifties. Here is its sequel.
That decade saw the brilliant flowering of a daily tragic comedy enacted in pubs like the Coach and Horses or The French and in drinking clubs like the Colony Room. These were places of constant conversation fueled by alcohol. The cast was more numerous and improbable than any soap opera. Some widely known- Francis Bacon, Jeffrey Bernard, Tom Baker and John Hurt. Just as important were the regular actors- The Village Postmistress, the Red Baron, Granny Smith. The bite came from underlying tragedy- lost spouses, lost jobs, pennilessness, homelessness and death.
Christopher Howse spent more time with Jeffrey Bernard than Boswell did with Johnson. Soho seemed to him like home. That Soho has now gone- the actors have died and the talk dried up. While it lasted, time in those smoky rooms always seemed to be half past ten, not long to closing time.
As the author relates, he never laughed so much as he did in Soho in the Eighties.
