Why a Booktrail?
1952: Jazz and the seedy world of Soho proves to be deadly…..London is calling…
London Calling
What you need to know before your trail
Rose Bellamy Gore is a seventeen year old debutante who goes missing in a seedy Soho jazz club. The prime is black saxophone player, Lindon Claremont who turns out to be the last person seen talking to her.
Lindon now is under intense scrutiny and so heads straight for Brighton to ask his childhood friend for help. This friend, Vesta Churchill works with ex-Whitehall backroom girl Mirabelle Bevan, who is now in charge of McGuigan & McGuigan debt recovery. Then Lindon is taken into custody and it will be the task of these two women to dive into London’s underworld of smoky night clubs, smart cars and lethal cocktails to establish the truth.
Travel Guide
Soho, London
London Calling? With the theme music of jazz in the background no doubt. The area of London famed for its jazz, cocktails and sleazy nightclubs and it’s in one of the famous jazz dens that saxophonist Lindon Claremont is found to be the number one suspect in the girl’s disappearance.
This underground music scene, the heady beat of the jazz music, the lipstick on the cocktail glasses and the young people kissing in doorways, this dark and underground world is very attractive to the youth of the day, runaways, anyone looking for a good time:
“Are we off to Greek Street? Dougal McKenzie told me that they dance all night in Soho”
Greek Street might be the place they go, but we find the famous Ronnie Scott’s jazz club is a top choice to recreate the Jazz heyday. Post war London is of course recovering from the hammering and trauma that only a world war can bring and now it’s being hailed as a buzzing city high on the promise of tomorrow as well as lots more intoxication besides.
The war time traces can be seen however from the rationing to the empty streets and the way people are suspicious of each other yet still intrinsically kind to their neighbours.
Brighton
Brighton is the home of Mirabelle Bevan and is where the investigation first starts taking place in the disappearance of the young girl. Post war London however is the main setting for the intrigue and mystery and in particular the heady world of Jazz. But here in Brighton, from the police station to the windy streets on the way to the fictional debt collection agency, Brighton represents the hope that Lindon might be able to find out why he is being targeted in a crime.
Streetview Maps
C) Brighton - East Street
E) London - Soho Greek Street
Destination: London Departure Time: 1952 Hope you enjoy your book trail of the Jazz world of London in London Calling
Back to ResultsWhere Next?
