Hi everyone

This is my first post here.

When I was a teenager in the 1970s, I was a huge Harley fan. Now. years later, I am in my fifties, and I am about to have my first novel published - and there is a connection between this novel and Steve Harley, which I thought might interest people. The novel is based on the extraordinary events surrounding the creation of Charles Dickens's first novel The Pickwick Papers, and its main character is Dickens's first illustrator, Robert Seymour, who shot himself shortly after working on a picture of a dying clown for the Pickwick project. I am sure that one of the reasons that I was so interested in Seymour's death is that I remembered the clown imagery in Ritz, and I have posted about this today on the novel's facebook page at:

www.facebook.com/deathandmrpickwick

If you are interested, the novel is called Death and Mr Pickwick and further information can be found at: www.deathandmrpickwick.com It will be published on May 21st by Random House (in the UK)and on June 23rd by Farrar, Straus & Giroux (in the USA).

Best wishes

Stephen Jarvis

Hi Stephen, Welcome to the forum. I think Steve's words have influenced each and every one of us here.
I called one of my daughter's Jemima after the "White White Dove". (Jemima means dove).
The Ritz clown image with his eyeless stare is indeed a creepy and nightmarish one. To my shame I'm not much of a reader but I wish you every success with the book.
I've "liked" your Facebook page

Many thanks for that reply, and for liking my facebook page. I wonder whether Steve has read The Pickwick Papers? I know that he is quite a literary fellow - and of course he even mentions Hemingway in Tumbling Down.

Wow Stephen. Fantastic review in the Times.
www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/boo...n/article1557573.ece

Thanks for posting that, Stella. I am still wondering whether Steve Harley is aware of The Pickwick Papers. The character of Sam Weller might be considered the original 'cockney rebel'.