Welcome

Richard C McNeff was born on Hampstead Heath in 1953. He is the author of Aleister Crowley MI5 (first published as Sybarite among the Shadows) and its recent follow-up, Aleister Crowley MI6: The Hess Solution. He also wrote With Barry Flanagan: Travels through Time and Spain, a memoir of his time as “spontaneous fixer” for the sculptor. His work has been published in Britain, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Holland. He is a contributor to The Guardian, Fortean Times, Wormwood and Boulevard Magenta.

Substack/blog posts

The Names of the Hare: A portrait of Barry Flanagan, sculptor. Here

Three Mystery Crashes: Was Hess’s 1941 crash linked to the 1942 Duke of Kent crash and the 1943 Sikorski disaster? Here

Pataphysical Introduction: Meet Alfred Jarry: Time traveller. Here

Harry in Wonderland: Prince Harry escapes to the South Pacific for some much-needed me time. But the best laid plans…Click here

Kings of Oblivion: a cautionary tale of the Lightning Raiders’ 1978 gig at the Moonlight Club, West Hampstead and partying with Lemmy, Mick Farren, the Pink Fairies and Hawkwind. Here

The Beast Goes On: Aleister Crowley’s influence on music. Here

The Sound of 65: The Graham Bond’s ORGANisation’s fractious gig at Klooks Kleek, West Hampstead, and a subsequent encounter with two acid-spiked Beatles in Soho. Here

McNeff’s novel is so different from anything you’d normally find on a bookshelf that it should perhaps be a compulsory purchase. –

The Independent on Sunday

Brilliantly researched, this is an astonishing read, a 24-hour snapshot of the seedy underground life of artists, poets, prostitutes, spies, and royalty of mid-Thirties London, all revolving around the fading powerhouse that was the Great Beast. – Fortean Times

Italian edition

An irresistible intrigue – Vanity Fair

We are in the presence of a novel of great fascination – Il Manifesto

Exhilarating…a poetic Art Deco thriller – La Repubblica

Did Aleister Crowley interrogate Rudolf Hess?

It’s a fun ride. – Fortean Times

Fortean Times

Aleister Crowley as himself in all his occult and charismatic glory – a manipulative, overbearing, bizarre yet compelling character. Fiction could hardly have invented him: he is a gift of a character to any novelist & Richard C McNeff has accepted him, unwrapped the parcel and given him his head. —Martin Booth (author of A Magick Life)

It is a very personal and often hilarious recollection of McNeff’s support of Flanagan … a compelling portrait of this great artist.
Barbara Dawson: Irish Arts Review

A book so rich in Barry-lore and response to his work that it more or less makes other biographies unnecessary.
Catherine Lampert (former director of the Whitechapel Gallery)

It is a fascinating account, and whether you are familiar with Flanagan’s artistic work or not, this is an extremely interesting biography which is a great read that will leave you more knowledgeable about the artist as well as entertained by the stories.
The Dublin Duchess

A cracking memoir – funny, informative, elegiac and thought-provoking.
Martin Davies (Barbary Press, Ibiza)

Richard C McNeff