64 FT383
The Surrender of
Silence
The Memoir of Ironfoot Jack, King
of the Bohemians
Ironfoot Jack; ed: Colin Stanley
Strange Attractor Press 2018
Pb, 264pp, illus, notes, bib, appx, ind, £12.99, ISBN
9781907222658IronfootJack Neave is the
definition of an unreliable
narrator. He deals only with
things that are important to him,
glossingover arrests and police
raids, already covered in the
biographyWhat Rough Beast?by
Mark Benney. This perspective
makesThe Surrender of Silenceall
the more compelling.
The book, taken from
transcribed tapes of Neave’s own
words, mainlyfocuses on “how to
solve the problem ofexistence”- making enough of a living that
he didn’t starve and notworking
more than necessary. At times
this approach involvedreselling
antiques, books, tellingfortunes,
sellingcharms, or fragrances.
This is aworld of Needies and
Grafters,Pearl Divers and China
Fakers, the text conjuring aworld
adjacent to the more settled
communities of pre-war Britain.
At a time when there is
discussionabout thechanging
character of London, it is
interesting toread about a city
long-since lost; of Bohemian clubs
and occult circles, Caledonian
Road Market, and underground
cafés.This is a London of black
magic and Buddha statues,
self-styledyogis and basement
temples. In damp cellars
across the capital, different
philosophieswere fused into
constantlychanging cults, and
IronfootJack is a good guide to
that mostly hiddenworld.
Colin Stanleyfound the
transcript while cataloguing
ColinWilson’s papers, and
has done anexcellent job of
presenting the self-styled King of
the Bohemians in hisown words,
clarifying points infootnotes and
lettingJack speakfor himself,
something that hewas more than
capable of doing.
Whetheryou think ‘Professor’
Neave was a conman, anexpert
on the occult, an artist, or
just a man constantly on the
brink of destitution, this isa
highly entertaining book.The
Surrender of Silencetakes us
into a colourful, hidden side of
London long before punk or the
Swinging Sixties, that has, in
IronfootJack’s phrase, gone with
the wind.
SteveToase
HHHHI Am the Dark
Tourist
Travels to the Darkest Sites on
Earth
HE Sawyer
Headpress 2019
PB, 292pp, illus, notes, bib, ind, £15.99, ISBN
9781909394582The image of the author on the
cover of this book –wearing
a plague doctor’s mask – says
somethingabout what toexpect
inside, as the self-styed hero
revisits the ‘dark’ tourism sites
he’s travelled toover the past
40 years.
The book opens with Sawyer
on aJack the Ripper tour, and
there’s a smattering of the
casual sexism that can befound
throughout the book: “Why are
we here if not to see the actual
spot where a bloated, stumpy,
middle-aged streetwalkerwas
repeatedly stabbed to deathover
a century ago?”
After thisrough start, he
launches into the background
of dark tourism, detailing the
numerous sitesworldwide – from
Alcatraz to Bodyworlds, aswell
as more ‘niche’ locales, like UK
serial killer Dennis Nilsen’sfl at.
We learn that there is a dark
tourism ‘topfi ve wish list’ and
hear rumours of plans to develop
‘Jonestown’, where more than
900 people drankcyanide laced
Kool-Aid in the Guyanese jungle
in 1978.
Sawyer’sfi rst stop is the
9/11 Memorial in NewYork,
where he ponders the irony of
entering amuseum dedicated
to events createdby hijacked
planes through what feels like
airport security. In Chernobyl,
he smokes cigarettes and
drinksvodka like some kind
of movie detective. It’s a
shame thatwe often seem to
get more of the author’s life
story than informationabout
gems like theKelvedon Hatch
Secret Nuclear Bunker (see
FT378:30-36) – a perfect setting
for futuristic, post-apocalyptic
LARPing.Thankfully, he drops
the poetic introductionsby
the third, shipwreck-themed,
chapter, wherewe go on ‘wreck
safari’ to theSalem Express,The joy of sectsCults
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to
Know
Kim Cooper, Brian Rau
Herb Lester Associates, 2019
£12, ISBN 9781999343903This isn’t a bookabout cults,
but a beautifully designed map
and fold-out guide: on one side
is Brian Rau’srepresentation of
the United States (and southern
Canada), with the primary
locations of a widevariety of
cults marked withnumbers
and graphics; on the other are
capsule summaries giving the
names, active dates, core beliefs
and potted histories of 30 cult
organisations, big and small,
active and defunct.
The drily amusing text is
by Kim Cooper, a no velist and
historian of the darker side of
Los Angeles who runs offbeat
history tours of the city; which
mightexplain why southern
California gets itsown inset
map, although that can be
attributed equally plausibly to
the sheervolume ofkooks – from
Charles Manson and his ‘Family’
to the Buddhafield cult – who
have called theregion home
over theyears.
There’s an intriguing – or
terrifying, depending on
your point of view –range of
beliefs on display here.While,
unsurprisingly, most of these
groups are lunaticchips off
the old blocks of the Religions
of the Book (killer Mormons,
sex-crazed Seventh Day
Adventists), others illustratethe fall-out from theWestern
counterculture’s turn Eastwards
(Rajneesh, ISKCON), the
‘occultexplosion’ and the
New Age (the Process Church,
Conscious Development) or the
call ofextraterrestrial wisdom
(Heaven’s Gate,The Order
of the SolarTemple).What
tends to link such disparate
groups – aside from more-or-
less completely bonkers belief
systems – are the thingswe’d
usually perceive as markers of
‘cult’ activity: millennialism,
charismatic leaders, curtailment
of followers’ individual freedom,
dodgyfi nancial practices, and
the sexualabuse ofwomen and
minors.
Most of the heavy-hitters
get a look-in, including the
Branch Davidians and Jim
Jones’sPeople’sTemple, but it’s
nice to see some less obvious
choices. I’dforg ottenabout the
Nuwabian Nation, the wildly
eclectic black sci-fireligionists
who built Egyptianpyramids in
rural Georgia before their leader
DwightYork was arrested and
imprisoned onchild sexabuse
charges, but apparently they
are still out there,awaiting his
release. And who couldresist
the Divine Order of the Royal
Arms of the Great Eleven, whose
Californian matriarchs offered
the secrets ofresurrection and
mineralwealth? As Cooper tells
it: “A ragtag community hung
aroundawaiting thereve lations.
In the craggy hillsabove Los
Angeles, they danced naked,
rubbedcheese behind their ears,
mummified their dead, and in
at least one horrible case got
‘cured’ in a brickoven.”Yikes!
If you’re lookingfor a sober
and non-judgmental source
of information on these and
othergroups, thenyou should
probably get hold of a copy of
our own David Barrett’sThe
New Believers: Sects,‘Cults’ and
Alternative Religions. If you’re
lookingfor an attractive fortean
gift, though, thiswould do nicely.
David Sutton
HHHA beautifully produced guide to 30 barmy,and sometimes deadly, alternative religionsREVIEWS /BOOKS