Book launch: International Freak — Robin Farquharson and the Dream of Psychedelic Revolt

@ M. Syd Rosen and Owen Hatherley discuss the life and legacy of countercultural icon Robin Farquharson.

Born in 1930 into a privileged South African family, Robin Farquharson was part of a new wave of intellectuals tasked with reimagining society in the wake of World War II—until a phone call from God brought everything crashing down. Under the gaze of the secret police and his own mounting paranoia, Farquharson fled to Swinging London and tried to reinvent himself as a countercultural guru. Along the way, he helped to have South Africa banned from the Olympic Games, authored an unclassifiable memoir of queer street life, and climbed to the top of the mysterious White Panther Party. Then, just days after founding the pioneering Mental Patients Union, flames ripped through his home and Farquharson was gone.

Drawing on meticulous archival research and extensive new interviews, International Freak marshals an extraordinary cast of characters in order to tell Farquharson’s story for the first time. Equal parts experimental biography, social history, and psychedelic true crime, this is a portrait of a singular man and the world he sought desperately to transform.

We are delighted to welcome M. Syd Rosen (author of this utterly compelling biography) and Owen Hatherley to Housmans to discuss the life of this truly remarkable hero of counter cultural Britain.

As always, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please contact shop@housmans.com and a free ticket will be made available. If you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. For earlier collection or delivery contact the shop (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com.

Doors open 18:45, event starts 19:00.