AUTHOR’S NOTEI wrote this book originally in 1944. Nearly all the characters were taken from real people and incidents that had occurred during the war. I knew many of the artists who lived in Chelsea during the twenties and thirties, whose behaviour shocked and intrigued us.
Today the colourful personalities like Simon Prentis would evoke little comment but at the time they were sensational.
“The dark quick stream of passion swirling past,
Widening ripplewise to form
Its own tumultuous tide,
Passion immersed, encompassed by itself,
Too deep, too dark for comprehensive thought,
Yet lo! a gleaming shaft of sun can find
An echoing light,
Gold tip the crested waves, pierce through the
sombre depths.
To love!
The love which all must seek because it is Divine.”