Tommy Nutter comes out of the rabbit hole...

The 1970's? Tommy Nutter? Mean nothing?

That is because Tommy Nutter's name went down a rabbit hole. In the 1970's Tommy was the king of mens fashion. His designs were worn by Elton John, the Stones, David Bowie,  David Hockney and more. Mick and Bianca Jagger got married both wearing Tommy Nutter outfits.

Remember the Abbey Road album cover? Course you do. All but George are wearing Tommy Nutter. Remember Jack Nicholson as The Joker in Batman? Yeah, designed by Tommy.

Tommy the tailor/designer shook up Savile Row, shook up fashion. And then? After his death in 1992 not much was heard of Tommy, apart from an exhibition of his work at the Fashion and Textile Museum in 2011.

All is now put right in Lance Richardson's wonderful new biography of Tommy, published May 10th 2018, take the ISBN 9781784741242 to your local bookshop and dive in to the 1970's and how Tommy Nutter dressed it amidst the gloom and doom usually associated with the 70's....Tommy lit it up!

James Jesus Angleton's rabbit hole was lined with mirrors...

Espionage is a world of mirrors, but counter-espionage is a world of  mirrors within a world of mirrors. It involves finding out what your enemies plans are and responding to them without them knowing that you know what their plans are. They are doing the same which pushes the reflections to infinity.

James Jesus Angleton lived in that world and his rabbit hole was long, twisting and mirror lined. Born in Idaho in 1917 to an American father and Mexican mother his education took him from Malvern College in England to Yale University where poetry was his love. He corresponded with the always contrary, (to say the very least!) Ezra Pound and was an admirer of TS Eliot, William Empson and Carlos Williams among others.

The rabbit hole came into view in World War 2 when he worked with  OSS in London where he met his nemesis, one Harold 'Kim' Philby. His work in OSS led to him becoming a  founder officer of the CIA, of which he became head of counter-intelligence.

Knowing that his organisation had penetrated Soviet, and other, intelligence agencies led Angleton to believe that his own was subject to the same threat. With time his view was not to prove that a particular suspect was a spy but they were not a spy

And so the rabbit hole became lined with mirrors. In his spare time Angleton was as obsessive in his interests, fly-fishing, making jewellery and  cultivating orchids as he was with his work.

The defection and exposure as a KGB mole of Kim Philby, (below) who had been a trusted colleague and friend, shattered the mirrors lining Angletons rabbit hole into a mosaic of shards from which he was to never escape.

From then on Angleton saw Reds not just under but on and in the bed and his hold on the CIA allowed him to pursue his obsessions until a New York Times article by Seymour Hersh confirmed that the CIA had been operating within the USA under Angleton. Angleton resigned and retired to fish and grow orchids.

His legacy is mixed, some see him as a paranoid obsessive who did more harm than good. Others see him as far seeing and justified in his beliefs.

A new book by Jefferson Morley allows us to make our own judgements. A deft mix of personal and professional biography 'The Ghost' is a glimpse into the world of a strange, multi-faceted man. A world where most of us would truly fear to tread.

To go down this rabbit hole take the ISBN 9781911344735 to your local bookshop, it's in mine;)

Another rabbit hole soon...

Craig Smith fell down a musical rabbit hole....and came back as Maitreya Kali

There can have been no more saccharine TV in the 1960's USA than 'The Andy Williams Show'. It was wholesome family fare with Andy crooning and guest stars warbling. Yet for a certain Craig Smith it was his first sight of the rabbit hole.

Craig, born in L.A. in 1945 was a folk singer and busker and was recruited to join the show as part of the house band for Williams and there followed a string of similar gigs with Craig rubbing shoulders with the Monkees and the Mothers of Invention. Craig's songs were recorded by the Monkees, Andy Williams and Glen Campbell to name but three. He joined the band 'Penny Arkade' which had some success but it was always 'almost' for Craig.

And so, after reputedly hanging out with the Manson crew he set off on the hippy trail and now the rabbit hole was open.

He returned a different man, with a different name, he was now Maitreya Kali and had a spider tattooed on his forehead. His old friends and family barely recognised him.

  He tried to ressurrect his music career with self-financed  albums which he sold or often just gave away, such as 'Apache'

 The liner notes made clear that Craig's  mind was fractured, the notes were rambling to say the least. By now he was claiming to be a reincarnation of Jesus, Buddha and Hitler and said he would be King of the World by the year 2000. The world saw it differently.

Then he fell off the radar, after assaulting his mother in 1973 he spent three years in prison

  and lived the last 30 years of his life homeless and forgotten until his death in 2012. His family were notified but declined to claim his remains.

Mike Stax, however, quietly researched Craig's life for fifteen long years and the result is a fascinating book full of insights into the 1960's and the effect it had on one man.The always excellent Feral House  are the publishers (photos all courtesy Feral House) so for the full story take the ISBN 9781934170656 to your local bookshop, mine has it in stock;)

To hear his music you can listen to Apache on Youtube

Another rabbit hole soon...

The Wild West had many rabbit holes...Jesse james knew them all

The words 'The Wild West' brings to mind many names, Billy The Kid, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, Wild Bill Hickock, and, of course, Jesse James.

But Jesse was the one who went down rabbit holes again and again.

Born in 1847 in part of Missouri known, because of it's Southern leanings, as  'Little Dixie' Jesse and his siblings grew up in a politically confused area when Civil War loomed. Families split along Union/Confederate lines and feuding erupted with militias from both sides roaming the state. Jesse's father became a victim of one such militia and Jesse was, according to legend, whipped by a Unionist militia.

This fired further rebellion in a teenage Jesse and he joined a violent  bushwhacker gang led by the notorious 'Bloody Bill' Anderson which waged the Civil war on State lines, a Civil War within a Civil War. In the photo of bushwhacker Jesse below he is aged seventeen or eighteen.

  After Anderson's death and the end of the Civil War Jesse and brother Frank joined forces with the Younger Brothers and set out on a series of bank and train robberies which brought national fame whilst presenting himself as a respectable family man.

Down the rabbit hole of outlawry and banditry lies the truth about Jesse James. Was he just a bank robber, in it for the easy money or was he driven by ideological beliefs to continue the Civil War by other means?

Jesse famously died when he straightened a picture on the wall of his home and was shot dead by Robert Ford.

T.J Stiles is your guide down the various Jesse James rabbit holes in a gripping and enlightening  biography which goes further in unravelling the multi-faceted persona of Jesse James than any other.

Take the ISBN 9780099521174 to your local bookshop and enjoy the read.

Another rabbit hole soon..

Marlon Brando found many rabbit holes...

Marlon Brando was, end of story, the finest actor in film history. And yet, his life and career were a series of rabbit holes.

Marlon was born in Omaha Nebraska in 1924. His mum smoked, wore trousers and drove cars. She was also an alcoholic. Marlon, in later life said of her "The anguish that her drinking produced was that she preferred getting drunk to caring for us."

First rabbit hole for Marlon. Down this rabbit hole Marlon found a sensitivity to the failings of others and expressed it. He was expelled from Libertyville High School after riding a motorcycle through the corridors.

Acting was fun for Marlon but he was far from the lazy slob he is often thought to be. An example of his thinking comes from an acting class with Stella Adler. She told the class to be chickens. Then she said a nuclear bomb was about to fall, the chickens went headless crazy, apart from Marlon who just sat down. When asked why he replied "I'm a chicken...what do I know about bombs?"

Another clue to his acting style lies in his habit of, after the director called 'Action!", chatting to one or two of the crew about whatever came into his head and then, when he felt relaxed and natural in conversation, out come the scripted lines.

The cue cards? Yes, he did use them, why? He would read a script but not set it in stone in is head, he would learn it to the point of needing a prompt, hence the cue cards, he felt his delivery would then be more natural.

This ability to be faithful to the script whilst also being natural is best seen here, a clip from 'A Streetcar Named Desire' all good but look at 3.09 whe he sees a fleck floating in the air and pinches between finger and thumb and then the 'Got That' nod.  Here it is...

That moment, for me, is Marlon Brando in a millisecond. Two minds working together, the acting mind and the real mind.

To unravel the rabbit holes in Marlon's life I read Susan L Mizruchi's stunning book 'Brando's Smile' and if you like rabbit holes you need this book about Marlon

Another rabbit hole soon....

Guy Burgess found rabbit holes inside rabbit holes...

To be a spy is to live two lives at once without allowing one to impinge on the other, a daunting task for anyone.

Guy Burgess was already living two different lives at once before he became a spy and was always happy for one to impinge on the other, indeed he enjoyed doing so and watching the results.

Born in 1911 to a wealthy upper-middle class English family Guy was schooled at Eton, the Royal Naval College Dartmouth and Trinity College, Cambridge. Such a background brings to mind a well mannered individual, respectful of his heritage and all it stood for.

Not so Guy. Flamboyantly gay from an early age Guy had been described, by the time he arrived at  Cambridge as grubby and  untidy and exceeded himself whilst at Trinity, being described there as 'a selfish lout' and 'dirty'. Guy was never much bothered with others opinions as he espoused his new left wing opinions with breath full of the garlic cloves he habitually chewed.

Dissolute and promiscous Guy was also precociously clever Guy. Though failing to leave Cambridge with the expected double first he was able to network and this, along with his leftwing views, led to his being talent-spotted by the already KGB agent Kim Philby who recommended him to his handler, Arnold Deutsch who, very perceptively, saw great potential in Guy's "inclinations of an adventurer" as a new recruit to the group who became 'The Cambridge Five'.

Guy's only concession  to his life as a spy was to renounce his left wing views. He remained as contrary as ever through subsequent jobs at the BBC, where he was described as '"a snob and a slob..." The rabbit hole was open and Guy dived in.

His contrariness continued as he joined the Foreign Office and provided so much information to the Soviets that they thought it was to good to be true and that nobody as badly behaved and unkempt could possibly keep his job and he could, therefore, be a double agent.

Guy's fortune ran out and he and fellow spy Donald Maclean fled to Russia in 1951.

The rabbit hole now took on a darker hue as Guy pined for that part of British life he enjoyed as much as he rejected the system that had provided it. He wrestled, once again, with living two lives side by side and died of acute liver failure in 1963 aged just 53

His ashes are interred in a quiet churchyard in rural England, far from the now long gone Soviet Union.

Two recent biographies shed light on the strange and divided life/lives of Guy Burgess.

Just take the ISBN's 9781473627383 and 9781849549134 to your local bookshop for the full engrossing story.

Another rabbit hole soon...

Philip K Dick's rabbit hole got made into movies...

The recent extension to the Blade Runner film story has also stirred interest in the author of the book it is based on, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" published in 1968, written by Philip K Dick.

Born in 1928 in Chicago Philip was one of twins, his sister Jane died aged six weeks. Brought up by his mother Philip developed an interest in science fiction and began writing stories, the first was  published in 1951 and from then on he devoted his life to writing. Alongside science fiction he also wrote mainstream literary novels with no success.

At university study of philosophy gave Philip a life-long interest in what is 'real' and this increasingly dominated both his psyche and his writing.

By 1971 he had developed a serious amphetamine habit and the rabbit hole began to open in front of him. His increasingly erratic behaviour was reverse-mirrored in the increasingly focussed subjects of his writing. Notions of reality, confused ideas of consciousness and alienation mixed with a cocktail of drugs resulted in psychosis, hallucinations and breakdowns.

It also resulted in some of the most original and challenging works of science fiction. His ideas and novels were made into films, 'Blade Runner', 'Total Recall' and 'A Scanner Darkly' being the most notable.

His health suffered from the drug use and Philip K Dick died in 1982. He was buried alongside his sister. At the time of her death his name had also been inscribed on the tombstone, the dates of birth and death were left blank, awaiting his arrival.

Emmanuel Carrère's biography 'I Am Alive and You are Dead: A Journey Inside the Mind of Philip K. Dick' is now available again, take the ISBN 9780747579717 to your local bookshop for a trip into a fascinating mind.

There is also an equally intriguing audio-only interview he gave in 1979 here

Another rabbit hole soon.