Christopher Othen

Author of 'The Polish Mafia', 'Franco's International Brigades', and 5 other non-fiction books. I write about all kinds of cultural and historical weirdness.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@BovrilG Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and TE Hulme died. Everyone else survived and went on to fail to change the post-war world.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@NicholasOShaug1 Gortz committed suicide because he thought - wrongly - he would be handed over to the Soviets on return. More fear of the Gulag than a love of leprechauns and Guinness.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@Paul_Heron_ @LaughingCav1 @TheSimonEvansX Vorticism and CRWN's Futurism were mostly pre-war. The conflict stimulated more escapist, talented, arch works than it did the avant-garde i.e. Rex Whistler, the Bright Young Things, and other fun but thin 1920s productions. The Wasteland and David Jones were exceptions really.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@chicagopressed @GangsterCinema The man with the bulletproof eye.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@BarryPierce Anyone wanting to dive deeper can find some interesting stuff here (https://t.co/R9Mkbhsg73), a website devoted to St John's Wood history. Worth noting that Holman Hunt's painting 'The Awakening Conscience' of a man and his mistress is set in a SJW villa.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@BarryPierce In the Victorian era, St John's Wood was notorious for high-class prostitutes, 'houses of assignation', and various kept women. The poet Swinburne used to go there to get thrashed with a riding crop by an American circus performer. Victorian values at their finest.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@AnnieisUndead The biography of Harry Crosby is better than pretty much anything Harry Crosby ever wrote, unfortunately. His real talent was spending his fortune on much better artists. Fascinating life (Boston/War/Paris/Suicide) but a genius writer he was not.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@TiresianLaddie The Congo was Europe's Vietnam War for a while in the 1960s.

[Andy Fella - 🇦🇺 🇺🇦 🌻🇬🇪 @malleegirl57]

The King of Nazi Paris: Henri Lafont and the Gangsters of the French Gestapo - Christopher OTHEN @ChrisOthen
So High a Blood: The Life of Margaret , Countess of Lennox - Morgan RING

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@WeatherBrew @foolishly @lilchiva @grahamcclark1 The credit is now 'Jimmy Page, inspired by Jake Holmes'. That's some inspiration.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@WeatherBrew @foolishly @lilchiva @grahamcclark1 To be fair, Dazed and Confused is one of the most blatant cases of Zeppelin ripping off another artist. The original from 1967:
https://t.co/xSXiBWJLCQ

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@EllroyReader You're welcome. It was recorded for the Some Girls LP in 1978 but dropped for being 'too controversial'. Turned up on a 2011 reissue. The Stones were definitely running out of steam by this point but still a decent track.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

Funny, moving, and sad, 'Street Level Superstar' tracks a year in the life of cult musician Lawrence. He wanders London, drinks tea, and daydreams of global success. Recommended for anyone hunting that sweet spot where genius, self-sabotage, and addiction collide.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@NicholasOShaug1 The most American traitor Britain ever had.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@UntoldWarFacts Jan Zumbach was a fighter ace in 303 Squadron. He went on to own a nightclub in Paris, work as an arms dealer for the Katanga secession, and fly as a mercenary in Biafra. There's a building side mural to him in the southern outskirts of Warsaw.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@FlaggHazel2 Well, reality is an unfocused mess of overlapping narratives. Films based on real events either carve out a clean path that distorts the truth, or go for honest chaos. Scandal was more the latter. A decent book on Ward came out 2 years earlier so that made it easier for viewers.

[Christopher Othen @ChrisOthen]

@FundamentalLack @SinningLeli What the hell does "Despatch the vermilion length only should the metallic node repeat mean?" And is this a countdown? "Five ... Quatre ... Tre ... Dwa ... ". La boom.