There is never any shortage of things to do in London, hundreds of art galleries and museums all over town showing their collections 7 days a week all year round.
There are also events that visit London for a short time, a brief fling with the city that exists for only a few months. Last weekend I managed to fit in three such events.
Late morning on Saturday saw me and Mr O take the northern line up to Kings Cross where I was happy to see the old world of seedy grimness gone and replaced with new shops and trendy bars and restaurants. Only 3 years ago I passed through there every day and knew the area like the back of my hand, but like the rest of the city, it is forever changing and improving, leading me to realise if you take a long enough break from any part of London, by the time you go back it will feel like a different place. I also managed to get a picture of Harry Potter’s Platform 9 ¾ and have a look at the new St Pancras Hotel which looks amazing albeit well out of my price range.
Anyway I hadn’t gone up there to see the train station, I was up there to visit the British Library, and see something that has never been in London before. I am a huge fan of American writer Jack Kerouac; a school friend bought me ‘On The Road’ for my 15th birthday and that was the beginning of a love affair with a form of literature I had been unaware of up to that point. I had read the classics, fallen in love with Heathcliff a dozen times over reading Wuthering Heights, read random books of Russian literature after discovering Vladimir Nabokov, delved into the darkness of Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka and had touched the edges of Americana by reading ‘The Catcher in The Rye’ too many times. Kerouac was a whole new world for me, open roads, open lives and the style of his writing was so free and clear that I got sucked into it, reading as many of his books as I could lay my hands on, depending entirely on my local library and second hand bookshops. Ahh…memories of days before Amazon when it was all about actually leaving the house to hunt down books.
‘On The Road’ is not my favourite novel by Kerouac, but it was my first so when I saw that the British Library was going to be home to the original scroll of the novel I knew I would have to go and see it. As you may already know, Kerouac wrote the book in 3 weeks typed on one 120 foot scroll of paper made of rolls of tracing paper that he had sellotaped together so he wouldn’t have to interrupt his creative flow by stopping and putting in new sheets of paper. The book that was published is an edited version of this original scroll, but the entire text is now available in book form.
I can’t explain, nor will I try to justify why this was a magical experience for me. It was my equivalent of going to a concert or festival; this was as close as I will ever get to my literary idol, as though he was there in the distance on a stage, an indistinct form but him all the same, his presence in the room as real as it could be. I said to Mr O afterwards that I was grateful that he had come along, as he doesn’t have the same passion for Kerouac as I do, I had basically dragged him from one end of London to the other to look at an old yellow roll of paper.
After this we made our way south again to central London and the National Portrait Gallery where a free exhibition of photo’s and magazines of Marilyn Monroe are on show. ‘Marilyn Monroe; A British Love Affair’ is a nod towards the time she spent in the UK filming ‘The Prince and The Showgirl’ with Laurence Olivier. This era of her life having renewed interest following the movie ‘My Week With Marilyn’ which covers the same period of her life. A small but beautiful collection of photo’s by some of Britain’s greatest photographers of the time including some of my favourites by Cecil Beaton. They also have a lovely collection of rare British magazines with Miss Monroe on the cover.
Sunday night covered another of my favourite things; burlesque. And in particular what I have always 
considered the best burlesque, the Crazy Horse. The famous Parisian revue has had shows all over the world, I first saw them when I was in Las Vegas in 2006, but was very glad to discover they were coming to London with the new Forever Crazy, a collection of the most popular acts from the last 60 years. What sets them apart from other revues is that the individual acts themselves are very simple – it is the lighting effects that make them so spectacular. If you want to see what it’s all about before forking out for the live show, check out the documentary movie ‘Crazy Horse’ made last year to show what goes on backstage and onstage at the famous original Paris venue just off the Champs Elysees.
I’d recommend the real thing though, as the London purpose built venue is quite amazing; a voluptuous velvet lined theatre with a bar area I wish was permanent – glittering chandeliers, kitsch fluorescent lights and a dressing room mirror themed bar. They also have a fabulous act (inbetween naked lady acts) called Up and Over it who literally and wordlessly tap, drum and slap their way through a re-enactment of a lovers quarrel. Entertainment all round and a damn good giggle, go get some.
Forever Crazy is at the Southbank Centre until December 2012
On The Road; Jack Kerouac’s Manuscript Scroll is at the British Library until 27th December 2012
Marilyn Monroe; A British Love Affair is on at the national Portrait Gallery until 24th March 2013
Anne-Marie Ormsby 