In Pariah Genius, literary giant Iain Sinclair follows in the footsteps of photographer John Deakin, whose chronicles of Soho life – and the world of Francis Bacon and his friends – have so influenced our perception of that generation’s work.

In this bold fictionalisation, Sinclair enters the underworld of Deakin’s life and imagination, pursuing his subject across continents, in dive bars, and bedrooms. The result is an engrossing, utterly unique portrait of a man who some felt was a fallen angel, and others, the devil himself.

Iain Sinclair

Born in Wales, Iain Sinclair has lived in Hackney since 1968, working at a London project, moving between poetry, fiction, documentation and film. He has published widely through mainstream and independent presses. His books include the influential ‘Lud Heat’ and ‘Downriver’ (winner of the James Tate Black Prize and the Encore Award for the Year’s Best Second Novel). ‘Lights Out for the Territory’ and ‘London Orbital’ (book and film) helped to revive the cult of psychogeography. Sinclair wrote and directed a quartet of films, made with Chris Petit, for Channel Four. He has made radio documentaries and collaborated on films with Andrew Kötting, Grant Gee and John Rogers. More recently, he published ‘The Gold Machine’, an account of tracking his great-grandfather’s expedition to the headwaters of the Amazon in Peru

John Rogers

John Rogers, author of This Other London – adventures in the overlooked city, and Welcome to New London – journeys and encounters in the post-Olympic City (Oct 2023). He directed the documentaries London Overground (with Iain Sinclair), The London Perambulator, Make Your Own Damn Art – the world of Bob and Roberta Smith , and In the Shadow of the Shard. John co-presented and produced the radio show and podcast Ventures and Adventures in Topography on with Nick Papadimitriou on Resonance fm between 2009-11. He was psychogeographer-in-residence for Waltham Forest London Borough of Culture 2019, and was commissioned to create a project for Brent Biennial in Brent 2020 London Borough of Culture, Kensal Rise Has A Story. He produces a regular series of London walks on YouTube with over 73,000 subscribers.

“John is Elizabethan, a film-poet, writer/walker from a better time. He has a history of alternative stand-up. A history of persistent engagement in the politics of protest, being there, bearing witness. Keeping the record. And posting it. He was good company on a second circuit of London Overground; a series of excursions fitted in between school-delivery and school-collection. It seems that John did most of his own work, writing or editing, at night. He was self-funding, self-starting, a guerilla documentarist in the great tradition: green anorak, ruined left knee, camera in pocket.”

– Iain Sinclair, from The Last London

“He’s the everyman’s psychogeographer, hobbling across the hilltops with only a can of Stella and a dodgy knee for company….
But this down-to-earth, booze-hunting ‘hippy wizard’ is a star in his own right. We’d rather think of him as the Brian Cox of topology, inspiring wonder and curiosity on esoteric subjects (without using complicated words like topology and esoteric).”

– Londonist

“…the walks off the beaten path navigated at the edges of the city navigated by John Rogers in This Other London are rich with surprises. Rogers conjures up magical little worlds that we would otherwise pass by.” Metro

“Rogers is an excellent storyteller surrounded by excellent stories” Los Angeles Review of Books on This Other London