A wonderful reminder of times past! Christopher Howse at The Telegraph recalls his youth spent, or more likely, misspent, in the company of the late, and quite disgraceful, Jeffrey Bernard, who used to write the weekly - well, not exactly every week! - Low Life column in The Spectator.
Quite often the column would be replaced with a brief message to the effect that "Jeffrey Bernard is unwell" which may have been true sometimes but often meant that he had been on another huge bender, usually at the infamous Coach and Horses pub in Soho, and was unable to face a typewriter! This non-stop alcoholic dissipation led, eventually, to extreme ill health and the medical amputation of his right leg, at which point, The Spectator put a notice over his blank column stating that "Jeffrey Bernard has had his leg off".
The picture above shows Bernard having a drink (natch!) with Peter O'Toole who eventually played the lead in Keith Waterhouse's play titled (again, natch!) "Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell". I was lucky enough to see it and it was hilarious, predicated as it was on the possibility that Bernard had been inadvertently locked inside the Coach and Horses after it closed. As he ambles, or staggers, about he recalls various past events in his life which he and a small supporting cast play out in the empty pub.
All very funny but, as Christopher Howse reminds us, in essence, Bernard's life was a melancholy disaster and a waste of talent. Even so, I shall raise a glass in his memory!
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