A figure considered legendary across the Channel, Quentin Crisp is practically unknown in Italy. International critics have repeatedly defined him as the Oscar Wilde of the twentieth century. Writer, model, actor, satirist, the British artist was a multifaceted character on the European scene, and now Accent Edizioni is busy spreading his cultural heritage.
It has been in bookstores since October 2nd The naked officialan unfiltered and witty autobiographical novel, in which the writer has the merit of addressing his audience without barriers, as he did on the streets of London and posing naked for live painting lessons. The song is dedicated to him Englishman in New York by Sting, in which the singer calls him “the bravest man I’ve ever met.”
The plot
In 1931, “the tidal wave created by the Wall Street crash has reached London, and the sky is darkened with millionaires throwing themselves out of windows.” Quentin Crisp avoids them by crossing the city on heels, wearing makeup, with his hair dyed with henna; he doesn’t shy away from stares, nor, when it happens, from attacks. He claims the right to be who he is, and uses his uninhibited and eccentric homosexuality and his sharp humor as weapons to overcome personal difficulties, in an era in which doing so is heroic.
From this novel, the BBC television film of the same name was made in 1975, which allowed him to enter the homes of millions of English citizens, becoming one of the best-known faces of the small screen. The naked official it allowed him to gain great fame even overseas, in the United States, where he began to attend the famous Stars and Stripes late shows quite assiduously. In 1993, Crisp was chosen by Channel 4 to give a speech to the nation at the same time as Queen Elizabeth’s traditional end-of-year speech.
The cover