‘A natural Bohemian’

Press, 3 August 1985, Page 20

‘A natural Bohemian’

Memoirs of the forties. By Julian Madaren-Ross. Penguin, 1985 (Ist edition, 1965). 348 pp. $16.95. (Reviewed by Stephen Erber)

Julian Maclaren-Ross was a writer who, for the most part, is forgotten today. These memoirs, half-finished when he died in 1964, are his anecdotal account of front line Soho in the 19405. His experiences as a conscript during World War II served as raw material for the short stories, six of which are republished with the “Memoirs.” I suppose it is true that he was “a natural Bohemian,” and he was certainly an unmistakeable figure with his cane, carnation, dark glasses, and fur coat in the pubs of Soho. Affectation aside, he was also a remarkably good writer, particularly in his descriptive abilities which have left us with a vivid, humorous, and vigorous account of the period. Many of his acquaintance, prominent

in the literary life of the time, are today names which evoke little or nothing. Literary aspirations and lack of money are what they had in common. For some time MaclarenRoss was a friend and fellow employee with Dylan Thomas and his account of Thomas’s battles with his twin desires to write and drink — not mutually exclusive desires — is quite enthralling and very amusing. Similarly amusing is his account of his dealings with J. Meary Tambitmutu, king of London poetry, whose twin desires to operate a literary magazine devoted to poetry and to make money were exclusive of each other.

Ultimately, however, the “Memoirs” are those of a man of “modest and impoverished fame” whose literary legacy is insufficient to ensure remembrance. Which is a pity because the talent was there. Unhappily the opportunities to display it were not.