Immortalised in Christopher Isherwood's classic novel 'Mr Norris Changes Trains', Gerald Hamilton was the real-life model for the seedy but beguiling Mr Norris. Tom Cullen's biography is a literary curiosity, written in the 1970s but never published.

"It is not only the Hammer films based on Dennis Wheatley's novels that are full-blooded, sensational entertainment, so was Wheatley's life, brilliantly evoked by Phil Baker. This gripping biography draws out all the comedy from Wheatley's history, from his childhood in a family of wine merchants who were dedicated to social climbing (the scrambling for status never left Wheatley either, even in his 70's he was proudly joining gentlemen's clubs such as White's) to his experiences in World War One. Wheatley's main ambition as a soldier was to join a socially acceptable regiment, but the Westminster Dragoons wouldn't have him because he couldn't ride (he claimed that he could but his first time on a horse rather exposed this lie), he was too short for the Artist's Rifles and so he ended up in the Artillery. He spent most of the War attending training camps and hunting for casual sex (and writing his first, unpublished, novel), before being sent to the Western Front in 1917. A business disaster, along with the Depression, led him to turn his attention to writing novels as a means of escaping penury (an unconventional idea for becoming rich) and after selling 50 million books he succeeded. Wheatley lived on a grand scale, rather like a real-life bon vivant James Bond, of fine dining, expensive wines and even more expensive cigars. Phil Baker captures Wheatley's personality, as well as the lurid extremes of his novels (their occult settings, the constant promise of orgies and threats to virgins). For such a detailed book The Devil is a Gentleman is astonishingly readable, as page-turning as Wheatley's own novels.James Doyle in Book Munch

La Fee Verte (or "The Green Fairy") has intoxicated artists, poets, and writers ever since the late eighteenth century. Stories abound of absinthe's druglike sensations of mood lift and inspiration due to the presence of wormwood, its infamous "special" ingredient, which ultimately leads to delirium, homicidal mania, and death. Opening with the sensational 1905 Absinthe Murdres, Phil Baker offers a cultural history of absinthe, from its modest origins as an herbal tonic through its luxuriantly morbid heyday in the late nineteenth century. Chronicling a fascinatintly lurid cast of historical characters who often died young, the absinthe scrapbook includes Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Dowson, Aleister Crowley, Arthur machen, August Strindberg, Alfred Jarry, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Allais, Ernest Hemingway, and Pablo Picasso. Along with discussing the rituals and modus operandi of absinthe drinking, Baker reveals the recently discovered pharmacology of how real absinthe actually works on the nervous system, and he tests the various real and fake absinthe products that are available overseas. Written with "seductive verve and gentle insight" (Times Literary Supplement), The Book of Absinthe is a witty, erudite primer to the world's most notorious drink.

Along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs (1914--97) is an iconic figure of the Beat generation. In "William S. Burroughs," Phil Baker investigates this cult writer's life and work--from small-town Kansas to New York in the '40s, Mexico and the South American jungle, to Tangier and the writing of "Naked Lunch," to Paris and the Beat Hotel, and '60s London--alongside Burrough's self-portrayal as an explorer of inner space, reporting back from the frontiers of experience.

After accidentally shooting his wife in 1951, Burroughs felt his destiny as a writer was bound up with a struggle to come to terms with the "Ugly Spirit" that had possessed him. In this fascinating biography, Baker explores how Burroughs's early absorption in psychoanalysis shifted through Scientology, demonology, and Native American mysticism, eventually leading Burroughs to believe that he lived in an increasingly magical universe, where he sent curses and operated a "wishing machine." His lifelong preoccupation with freedom and its opposites--forms of control or addiction--coupled with the globally paranoid vision of his work can be seen to evolve into a larger ecological concern, exemplified in his idea of a divide between decent people or "Johnsons" and those who impose themselves upon others, wrecking the planet in the process.

Drawing on newly available material, and rooted in Burroughs's vulnerable emotional life and seminal friendships, this insightful and revealing study provides a powerful and lucid account of his career and significance.

City of cities, the modern world's first great metropolis, London has shaped everything from clothing to youth culture. It has a unique place in the world's memory, even as its role has changed from the capital of the planet to its playground, and as its lived history has mutated into the heritage industry. Londoner Phil Baker explores the city's history, and the London of today, balancing well-known major events with more curious and eccentric details. He reveals a city of almost unmatched historical density and richness. For Baker, London turns out to be Gothic in all senses of the word, enjoyably haunted by its own often bloody past. And despite extensive redevelopment, as he shows in this engaging and insightful book, some of the magic remains.

10 Days To Total Financial Freedom is about discovering its true source. And it's not about the money. It's about something much deeper, much more important, much more rewarding. It's about Favor, Divine Favor. It's discovering that it's not the size of your bank account, but the size of your Favor Account that counts most. This book is about discovering the true definition of financial freedom, it's true meaning. It's about tracing the roots and true source of wealth and it's purpose in the earth It's about the life of a young man named Joseph on his journey as he is separated from his father's house as a shepherd, sold as a slave into Potiphar's house in Egypt, falsely accused and placed in the house of bars as a prisoner, raised to prominence in Pharaoh's house as Prime Minister, and finally, after many years, restoration with his father and family, bringing everything full circle and completing the journey according to God's perfect plan and divine order. And in all of this he never lacked, never had an unpaid bill, never wanted for a place to live, never worried about transportation needs, but prospered, increased, and was promoted at every level regardless of circumstances. In this amazing story we discover that his FAVOR ACCOUNT, NOT HIS BANK ACCOUNT, WAS HIS GREATEST ASSET AND THAT THIS FAVOR IS AVAILABLE TO BOTH YOU AND I TODAY. This amazing book is all about discovering God's answer for a world that is rocking and reeling and falling into a great financial abyss of raging debt, and out of control spending; using methods of recovery that offer very little real hope for a brighter tomorrow. In 10 Days To Total Financial Freedom we will discover the onl;y real solution to one of earth's most perplexing problems, namely, poverty, debt, lack, and want. You will discover that there is a concrete plan for your good and a bright future filled with much promise, extreme favor, and abundance. In this easy to read, powerful little book, you are being invited to join me in discovering great wealth, your hidden treasure, as have I, and countless others throughout history. This book is filled with truth and inspiration that will help motivate you to positive action in search of your treasure; not hid from you, but hid for you to discover. Marvin Swanson