Adrift in Soho
 First Edition | |
| Author | Colin Wilson |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Victor Gollancz |
Publication date | 1961 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
Adrift In Soho is a novel by Colin Wilson. It was first published in England in 1961 by Victor Gollancz. The novel describes the English beat generation. The novel was republished to great acclaim by New London Editions in 2011, when Cathi Unsworth wrote 'Adrift in Soho is currently in production by Burning Films and with such rich source material, perhaps Wilson will now receive some contemporary reassessment for his continuing fascination with the human condition and the wit, warmth and insight that he brings to his accounts of those he has shared his unusual journeys with.'
Plot
The story opens in the late summer of 1955. Nineteen-year-old Harry Preston, having been granted an early discharge from national service with the RAF, moves to London from a small English provincial town to find life and adventure. Fancying himself as a writer, he drifts towards the central district of Soho, and soon enough he is included in the destitute but creative environment of the new Beat Generation. Harry meets an out of work actor, James Street. Street introduces Harry to the bohemian way of life and the novel recounts their misadventures. Harry travels upwards through this new world of wannabe artists, poets and writers, that have set up camp in the bohemian and not so posh 50s Soho and Notting Hill, he begins to slowly understand his role in this world.
References
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/going-underground/
http://www.londonfictions.com/colin-wilson-adrift-in-soho.html Colin Stanley's article on 'Adrift in Soho' on the London Fictions website
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