Quentin Crips books

'Naked Civil Servant' is obv. the one to go for, bks-wise.

the staffords are mad!

I think those three books were all published in a single volume which I think Powell's often has copies of (www.powells.com) so...

powells only accept creditcards :-(

I downloaded a Crisp lecture from emusic - it's called "The Naked Civil Servant," but it's only an hour and it's obviously not a reading of his memoir. Anyone know the deal with this? In any case, it's him before an American audience during the Carter years (based on a reference in the lecture) and it's mostly about *how to have a lifestyle*.

I have this. It's An Audience With Quentin Crisp, recorded in 1979-80 in New York. It's a 2 CD though. So I think there should be another hour or so somewhere. I love him because even when he's saying something that's patently nonsense he says it with such conviction that you go along with it for a minute and by the time you're thinking "wait a minute" he's onto something else.

"How to Become A Virgin" is a good book - a follow-up to "The Naked Civil Servant". But they're all quite quaint.

He wrote a couple of books early on on lettering and shop design but they're pretty rare and expensive. He also wrote a book illustrated by Mervyn Peake. He was multi-talented!

oI think I've read most of them and got three of the books around somewhere. Resident Alien is probably the most readable. Naked Civil Servant is like a relic from a previous age: fascinating historical interest, but possibly not that exciting in these stimulating times.

How to Have a Lifestyle & How to be a Virgin read like well-crafted but over-extended jokes, and stretch a lot of thin material very far.

His punctuation is excellent: reading those books did make me think about my own writing style.

The emusic thing is 2 x CD as Ned T says, about 53 and 55 minutes respectively.

potentially intriguing, at the Tribeca fest ... I wonder if any film actor has played the same character after a gap of 34 years?

An Englishman in New York, directed by Richard Laxton, written by Brian Fillis. (UK) - North American Premiere, Narrative.

John Hurt astounds as he revisits the role that made him a star (in 1975’s The Naked Civil Servant): real-life writer, actor, and gay icon Quentin Crisp. This smart, sensitive drama, marked by Hurt’s bravura handling of Crisp’s razor-tongued wit, focuses on the flamboyant 72-year-old star’s move to New York in 1981, and the fallout from a reckless comment about the burgeoning AIDS epidemic. Features Cynthia Nixon, Jonathan Tucker, and Swoosie Kurtz. Executive Producers are Joey Attawia, Susie Field and James Burstall.