Arts & Culture
Colony Room Green -
Green Ink author Simon May in conversation with Darren Coffield - Monday 28 April 7pm,
Heddon Street, London W1
“The spry, sardonic voice of the new historical fiction”
HILARY MANTEL
“Brilliant and original”
MARCEL THEROUX
"Elegantly acerbic"
THE NEW YORK TIMES
“A talent to be reckoned with”
MELVIN BURGESS
“A major talent, sharply observant of the human condition”
MONIQUE ROFFEY
“Razor-sharp wit”
GUARDIAN
Join Green Ink author Simon May in Conversation with Colony Room curator Darren Coffield
Please RSVP as space is limited
RSVP HERE
A former MP, with a stonking hangover, wakes up after a bisexual threesome. Sex, politics, espionage, violence, jokes. He disappeared suddenly in 1920. Was he murdered by British intelligence? Did he vanish with the ill-gotten gains of blackmail? Stephen May blends fact and fiction in his novel, Green Ink. I won’t spoil the fun by revealing May’s account of the disappearance of Grayson, but there is a clever and playful twist at the end that explains why the novel is called Green Ink.
David Lloyd George is at Chequers for the weekend with his mistress Frances Stevenson, fretting about the fact that his involvement in selling public honours is about to be revealed by one Victor Grayson.
Victor is a bisexual hedonist and former firebrand Socialist MP turned secret service informant. Intent on rebuilding his profile as the leader of the revolutionary Left, he doesn't know exactly how much of a hornet's nest he's stirred up. Doesn't know that this is, in fact, his last day.
No one really knows what happened to Victor Grayson – he vanished one night in late September 1920, having threatened to reveal all he knew about the prime minister's involvement in selling honours. Was he murdered by the British government? By enemies in the Socialist movement (who he had betrayed in the war)? Did he fall in the Thames drunk? Did he vanish to save his own life, and become an antiques dealer in Kent?
Whatever the truth, Green Ink imagines what might have been with brio, humour and humanity; and is a reminder that the past was once as alive as we are today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen May is the author of seven novels including Life! Death! Prizes! Which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and The Guardian Not The Booker Prize. He has also been shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year and is a winner of the Media Wales Reader’s Prize. He has also written plays, as well as for television and film. He lives in West Yorkshire.
ABOUT THE COLONY ROOM
Downstairs at Ziggy Green is Colony Room Green. Known affectionately as one of the ‘seediest spots in Britain’ but also the Bohemian heart of Soho, The Colony Room Club was an infamous drinking den/small members club which ran from 1948 to 2008. It attracted celebrity artists and eccentrics of its day, including founder member Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.
Curated by Darren Coffield, ex-club member, artist, and author of ‘Tales from the Colony Room’ - Daisy Green have worked tirelessly to recreate the infamous Soho drinking den catering to the bohemian elite through an immersive art installation in the downstairs of Ziggy Green.
With no phones allowed and the only prerequisite for membership to not be boring (a rule instilled by Muriel Belcher, the original club proprietor), head down the staircase and step back in time. Sip on beer, house wine (with prices matching those of 2008) or an Espresso Martini - in memory of Dick Bradsell, the head barman at the club in the late 1990s (who created the now ubiquitous cocktail for Kate Moss) - all in the surrounds and iconic green hues of Colony Room Green.
