Camden New Journal - Features: Soho dandy

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

The Review - FEATURE
Published: 22 November 2007

Soho dandy’s long lost scripts

MYSTERY manuscripts penned by the celebrated writer and Soho dandy Julian MacLaren-Ross have been discovered by his 95-year-old friend.
Karel “Mac” Jaeger, a children’s author who lives in Chichester, found a never-before-seen film script, unfinished novel and a letter, more than 50 years after they were written.
Paul Willetts, MacLaren-Ross’s biographer, said it was believed the prized manuscripts had been destroyed by an angry lover after the writer left her for with another woman.
He said: “When the war started Ross was conscripted and he gave the scripts to his girlfriend. But then he met another woman and Ross assumed they had been destroyed after she found out about the affair. But now we know she gave them to Mac. They are very beautiful and weird. The manuscripts are in microscopic handwriting – he was famed for his neat handwriting. It looks quite odd. You might think they were the work of a serial killer!”
John Betjeman described MacLaren-Ross as “one of our very best writers” and his turbulent life and pivotal role in the Fitzrovian post-war milieu – where he met Graham Greene, Alastair Sim, Herbert Marshall and Anthony Powell – has ensured iconic status.
But before fame and glory, MacLaren-Ross and Mr Jaeger worked together as vacuum cleaner salesmen while living in Bognor.
Dubbed “Mac and Mac” the pals travelled to Fitzrovia each weekend and became regulars in the Wheatsheaf pub in Rathbone Place in the mid-1930s drinking and carousing with Dylan Thomas and George Orwell.
“Mac is the last surviving link with that mid-1930s Soho collective,” said Willetts.
The film script was written for the Irish 1950s film star Keiron Moore, known for his role as Count Vronsky in the 1948 film adaptation of Anna Karenina opposite academy-award winner Vivien Leigh.
Mr Willetts added: “There is also a very good chunk of a novel – I believe it is based on his time on the Riviera.
“The letter is written to Mac’s daughter – it is completely barmy.”
TOM FOOT

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment:

» Exhibition Listings
» Exhibition Tickets