Works of and on Rudolph Friedmann

Rudolph Friedmann was a bookseller and writer. His writing is consistently experimental in form. He typically combines essay and fictional narrative. The one overwhelming influence on his writing was Sigmund Freud; though as is evident from the following, existentialism, especially Kirkegaard, is also important for him. Gershon Legman, in No Laughing Matter, describes his work as ‘poetic or “aphoristic” analysis.’

Very little has been written about him. He appears in the background of a few works of literary history and biography: see section 2. Read those to see why I am fascinated by him.

Updated 11 February 2026.

Works of and on John Horne Tooke

The following is a very — extremely! — incomplete list of works by and about John Horne Tooke, the Radical political botherer, also a very interesting philologist and, I think it is fair to say, in view of his Diversions of Purley, philosopher, or at least moralist. I have included very little of what he wrote so far. I shall get to it eventually.

Updated 14 January 2026.

The Development of the Diversions of Purley

Coleridge (Specimens of the Table-Talk, 7 May 1830), says that Horne Tooke ‘had that clearness which is founded on shallowness. … His mind had no progression or developement. All that is worth any thing … in the Diversions of Purley is contained in a short pamphlet-letter which he addressed to Mr. Dunning; then it was enlarged to an octavo … at last, a quarto volume, I believe, came out; and yet … there was no addition to the argument of the pamphlet.’ Coleridge’s judgment of the Diversions is unjust; though given that it is an untimely sort of work the force of whose insights is more easily registered after the intervening two centuries of moral and psychological criticism, the blunder is forgivable.

Works of and on Laura Del-Rivo

An inexhaustive list, which I shall continue to improve, of works by and about Laura Del-Rivo. Last updated 4 February 2026.

Novels

The Furnished Room. 1st ed. London: Hutchinson, 1961. 2nd ed. London: Pan, 1963. 3rd ed. Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications, 2011. — Translations: Dutch [as De Kamer Bewoner] (Leiden: Sijthoff’s Uitgeversmaatschappij, 1962); Spanish [as West 11] (Gijón, Asturias: Colectivo Bruxista, 2023). — Reviews and analyses: Isabel Quigly, Guardian (18 August 1961); Olivia Manning, Spectator (18 August 1961); Vernon Fane, Sphere (2 September 1961); E. D. O’Brien, Illustrated London News (16 September 1961); R. G. G. Price, Punch (20 September 1961); Kirkus Reviews (15 June 1962); Martin Levin, New York Times (8 July 1962); Nicholas Tredell, London Fictions (July 2013); Nicholas Tredell, Literary Encyclopedia (24 July 2013); Nicholas Tredell, Girl Gangs, Biker Boys and Real Cool Cats (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2017); David Noone, david-noone.com (25 January 2022); Cesc Guimerà, Rockdelux (23 October 2023); Ray Newman, Precast Reinforced Concrete Heart (29 August 2025).

Daffodil on the Pavement. 1st ed. London: Hutchinson, 1967. 2nd ed. [as Animals]. London: Pan, 1970. — Reviews and analyses: Stephen Wall, Observer (23 April 1967); David Rees, Spectator (28 April 1967); Robert Nye, Guardian (5 May 1967); Nicholas Tredell, Literary Encyclopedia (30 August 2013).

Speedy and Queen Kong. Nottingham: Pauper’s Press, 2004. — Analyses: Nicholas Tredell, Literary Encyclopedia (18 September 2013).

Works of and on Bill Hopkins

This list is by no means exhaustive. I shall be updating it shortly. Last updated 29 October 2025.

Novel

The Divine and the Decay: 1st ed. London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1957; 2nd ed. London: Deverell and Birdsey, 1984 [sometimes, but not always, under the new title The Leap!]; 3rd ed. Dunce, 2024 [as The Leap]. — Reviews: Tom Hopkinson, Observer (17 November 1957), p. 18; Howard Spring, Country Life, vol. 122, no. 3,175 (21 November 1957), pp. 1,117–9; Vernon Johnson, Guardian (26 November 1957), p. 4; G. S. Fraser, New Statesman, vol. 54, no. 1,394 (30 November 1957), p. 748; Simon Raven, Spectator, vol. 199, no. 6,754 (6 December 1957), p. 810; Hilary Corke, Listener, vol. 58, no. 1,498 (12 December 1957), p. 1,002; Millar MacLure, Tamarack Review, vol. 80, no. 7 (Spring 1958), pp. 92–6; British Book News, no. 210 (February 1958), p. 138; Graham Hough, Encounter, vol. 10, no. 2 (February 1958), pp. 84–7; Roy Fuller, London Magazine, vol. 5, no. 3 (March 1958), pp. 67–9; Robert Weaver, Queen’s Quarterly, vol. 65, no. 2 (Summer 1958), pp. 183–94; Revilo P. Oliver, Liberty Bell, vol. 13, no. 4 (December 1985), pp. 17–19 [repr. in Counter-Currents (7 June 2011)]; Greg Johnson, Counter-Currents (31 January 2024) [repr. in Greg Johnson, Novel Takes: Essays on Literature (San Francisco, CA: Counter-Currents, 2024)]. — See also: Malcolm Bradbury and Dudley Andrew, ‘The Sugar Beet Generation: A Note in English Intellectual History,’ Texas Quarterly, vol. 3, no. 4 (Winter 1960), pp. 38–47.

Arnold Haskell on Bullfighting

Three articles on the corrida (Spanish bullfighting) by the ballet-critic Arnold Haskell: ‘The Corrida as Spectacle,’ New English Weekly, vol. 1, no. 24 (29 September 1932), pp. 565–6; ‘The Corrida and the Humanitarian, ibid., no. 25 (6 October 1932), pp. 590–1; and ‘The Literature of the Corrida,’ ibid., vol. 2, no. 7 (1 December 1932), pp. 155–6. The latter reviews Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Death in the Afternoon’ and Roy Campbell’s ‘Taurine Provence.’ I am reproducing them because they are interesting and not otherwise available online. If you own the copyright and want them taken down, let me know.

A. R. D. Fairburn, ‘On Work’ (1932)

A nice little article ‘On Work’ by A. R. D. Fairburn from the New English Weekly, vol. 2, no. 4 (10 November 1932), pp. 83–4. I reproduce it here as it is otherwise unavailable online. If you own the copyright and you would like it taken down, let me know.

The New English Weekly was founded by A. R. Orage in 1932. In many respects it was a continuation of what the New Age had been under Orage’s editorship with many familiar contributors (A. J. Penty, Ezra Pound, Anthony Ludovici) and themes (guild socialism, Nietzsche, the latest in literary modernism); though it was, for my money, more straightforwardly a ‘movement paper’ than the New Age had ever been, the movement in question being Social Credit.

‘Rex’ Fairburn was a poet New Zealand and a friend of Count Potocki de Montalk.

This article very satisfyingly skewers the poisonous doctrine doctrine of the dignity of honest toil. Though some of Fairburn’s references are out of date (‘Public School code,’ etc.), the evil he identifies is still alive and active.

Jonathan Bowden's Early Writing (1989–95)

This list is based on details gleaned from online catalogues (mainly Amazon’s Good Reads website, which seems even more comprehensive than Google Books) and from the catalogues of the six Legal Deposit Libraries of Ireland and the UK (the Bodleian in Oxford, the British Library in London, the Cambridge University Library, Trinity College Library in Dublin and the National Libraries of Scotland and Wales). I have also examined the six-volume Collected Works at the British Library and the Cambridge University Library.