FORTUNE PRESS: A BOOK REVIEW OF "SHEPHERD MARKET" BY LESLIE ROBERTS

                Forgotten Novel From The Era Of The Bright Young Things

Published  By The Fortune Press

A BOOK REVIEW BY WILIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT

“Love is an indecent sport”  

“ Woman is the Huntress, and Man the Quarry”

Book Title : Shepherd Market by Leslie Roberts   

                                                            Shepherd Market : Late 1930s

                       

“ Shepherd Market” -the title of the book and its setting- is an enclave between London’s  Piccadilly and Curzon Street once  known  as  being  a part of the  early to- mid 20^th century’s  extraordinary low-life  corner of   Mayfair  hosting a smattering of  cheap lodgings in a space  inhabited by criminals,   spivs, prostitutes  and theatrical bohemians. 

The book was banned as  “Indecent” in Ireland,  but  praised  by several  British and overseas critics  as a  first novel by  a new author,  a Nottinghamshire-London  journalist, Leslie Roberts.

The Author’s style is neat, humorous (often campy), but he offers a good mix of  maverick characters and wit on par with  Evelyn Waugh’s “Vile Bodies”  and the mad hatters in  Nancy Mitford’s  romp “ In The Pursuit of Love”. It’s an  easy read and a  novel  overlooked featuring a few lost lambs  of  both the  black and white wool type  in the pre –WW2 London Town and in the aftermath of the extravagances of  the era of the  Bright Young People Brigade. 

A rollicking,  riotous, ridiculous tale,  quick paced throughout in a  story about   a young man, Paul Onion who has ambitions  to escape  municipal  mediocrity  and  establish  a name for himself as a writer and a poet.

Apparently fatherless,  Paul’s mother, a self-made woman, is his inspiration, as indeed is the Author’s mother is his own spark, with a book dedication   

 “For Her Pluck and Understanding And Naughty Sense of Humour”

The fictional Paul’s mother’s death frees up  the  cantankerous  youth  from a  likely life to come in chains and  dead end jobs in the dreary coalpolis of  Maidensmeadow,  this being somewhere in the Midlands.

The early part of the book describes the famous Nottingham Goose Fair, a target for quaint description by J B Priestley  as “ a crushing mass of gaping and sweating humanity".

 Paul Onion  is glad to  escape this hell hole.  A bright lad,  handsome, hugely  opinionated,  famed for  winning a  high school scholarship; he wont be  humoured or dictated to or be bogged down by lesser mortals  and  realises  his only chance of progressing  to  any height is  to move away from his barren roots and in so doing  changes his surname to the more romantic “ Lovelace” out of affection for a Cavalier poet.  

 Paul is soon catapulted  into  the wicked streets of London  where he has to grow up fast and furious  and stays  just well enough off  from the proceeds of his mother estate to survive all kinds of goodies, baddies, charlatans and creeps in a roll out of some dangerous power games, human and inhuman.

There’s a swirl of  irritation and even sadness as Paul often proves an irksome prude,  nervous  of sex,   a stubborn fellow,  but often  more canny than naive, and  frequently thankless when matched in a strange coupling cum-affair  with a gloriously  well written character, an actress- dancer,  a kept woman,  a fearless soul, constantly citing humorous aphorisms in much the same style  as movie legand  Mae West.   She is named Desiree, and occupies one of the flats at Mayfair Mews in Shepherd Market, with a maid and a sweet  little dog called “ Pompey the Little”.

This is hardly a  fine romance but they are locked together by fate. Yet, Paul insists from the word go of sleeping at a nearby hotel and  Desiree merely dubs  him her protege, but  they are clearly matched by the stars,  bounce well off each other  and their love-hate  topsy-turvy flings and adventures occupy most of the rest of the  storyline.

There is a  galaxy of  supporting characters, mainly from Desiree’s madcap stable of stage struck  friends and plenty of  fiends too, including  her Sugar Daddy, Sessel Cloud,  a rich, witty playwright  “who breeds decadent notions” and “ who is seldom sane by daylight”.  Sylvia Moon  a blonde “whose eye brows were arched in perpetual perplexity” who is engaged to Eric “ Lousy” Lancaster, a friend of Sessel Cloud “who keeps love birds and writes”. There’s also  Lesbia Capricorn ( as the name suggests of curious  sexual tastes /gender,  an exotic dancer, the star of a show called “ London Lies”,  written by Sessel.  The “Vile  cigar smoking Capricorn”  is always on the “whore path”.

Some of these people have charm, some are entirely  odious, all are in constant chaos but they do amuse and keep the humour and perversions flowing with dramas and tears aplenty.

Look out  for Denise Villers “God What Legs! Like a War Horse”,  for  a male ballet star named  Stallion  who danced for the Csar of Russia, and Earl Gay of Rape Royal in Sussex “a facetious old troll.” 

There’s a celebration of  Old London past decades, of  the famous Lyons Corner House and nights spent at the “ Curse of Ten” “ a cellar masquerading  as a palace, the most expensive rendezvous in Clarage’s Street”  and endless  Night Clubs, all hourly expecting a  Police raid to descend.

  The book unscrambles the tangled relationship between  the would be hero, Paul and the manic neurotic heroine, Desiree and  the story endures well into a series of skimpy follies and  dangerous frolics in London and Paris.

There are all the thrills and spills of the London Season,  of car racing pranks around the metropolis’ hot spots and well known locations,  in Desiree’s Silver Pelican,  grand drink sex, and drug parties given by a mysterious  Mrs Thursday , wife of the saintly Charles and  “ whose daughter Lucy  is mated with  a title”.

 Later  there’s a  well written floral  description of  going  by ferryboat  from England  to France and of the  splendid sights of Gay Paris with  hotel keepers like Madame Poiret who is foolish enough to stand up to challenge  Desiree. 

The physiological underbelly of the story is  of Paul Lovelace’s life and moral development from boyhood into manhood  and lessons to be learned of  a youth seeking out  fame and fortune, it  is a worth while read for adults.

From a witty, clever writer, good with dialogue.

Leslie Roberts (1905-66) :  One of the  Brighton Belles.

Copies of “Shepherd Market" are available from the reviewer and on Amazon and ebay  

 EMAIL WILLIAM CROSS

williecross@aol.com