Sohemian Rhapsody

There's always an evening out you've never had before. Last night Keith and I went to The Wheatsheaf in what used to be called Fitzrovia for an event organised by The Sohemian Society to mark the re-publication of Patrick Hamilton's Gorse Trilogy. Nigel Jones, who wrote a biography of Hamilton which is now sadly out of print, spoke and a couple of actors, one dressed up as a lounge bar cad from the era of rationing, read from Hamilton's works. It was in an upstairs room full of the kind of people who can read a book in a day. But then there were a few sorts whose carefully selected clothing - a pork pie hat here, a trilby there - suggested the desire to live in a Soho that actually disappeared thirty years ago. One of them was carrying a ukulele.