[‘The English Mayakovsky’: Adrian Mitchell, radical poet.] Typed Letter Signed to [Paul] Furness, describing his youthful experiences in pubs, ‘with the Merseylads’ (‘Liverpool poets’), in London and Oxford, with Jeff Nuttall, David Mercer and others

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, foolscap 8vo. Forty-three lines. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage. Signed in red ink ‘Adrian Mitchell’, and with red ink underlining and one manuscript addition. Addressed to ‘Mr Furness’ (One of a number of letters from British poets in response to enquiries from Paul Furness with regard to their pub memories.) Begins: ‘Pub I think of with the Merseylads is the Phil. I remember watching with great apprehension as movie director Ken Russell, wearing a powder-blue beret, and his wife, entered that pub and he began to exclaim about its aesthetic wonders. He ignored the heckles and emerged unscathed and delighted.’ He next turns to ‘Pubs I have read in’, including ‘one near Liverpool Street which housed the Peanuts Club which was a folk, jazz and poetry hangout with a huge CND sign at the back of the stage. (Nuttall [poet Jeff Nuttall (1933-2004)] is a big pub man). The hub of the Bradford Art College scene was a little black pub called the Wakefield where Albert Hunt, Nuttall and co used to connive in separate groups.’ He proceeds with reference to: ‘the Three Horsehoes, the Pentameters place upstairs by Leonie Scott-Matthews, one of the best poetry stages in London’, ‘The Flying Horseshoe at Clapham, Yorkshire which was kept by John ‘Widge’ Walton, one of the funniest and kindest men I ever met’, ‘the Washington, Englands Lane, Hampstead which has fine modern cut glass mirrors’, ‘the Freemasons Arms in Hampstead, by the Heath’. Turning to the playwright David Mercer (1928-1980): ‘I did know and love David Mercer. The Heroes of Alma - Alma Square, NW8 was his local pub but we never had more than a couple of beers in there. Towards the end I think he was mainly on the wagon, he was when I saw him.’ He ends: ‘Me and my friends at Oxford, who included poets Alistair Elliot and Anthony Thwaite, used to drink at the Turf Tavern, which was hidden away down an alley. It had a backroom which was just a broken down sitting room and we used to occupy that most nights in 1954.’