Author: Nina Antonia

***With signed bookplate by Nina Antonia***
£14.50 plus £2.50 P&P UK Only

Through a series of interlinking essays, Nina Antonia takes us to meet the Decadent demi-monde of the 1890’s with whom Wilde and Douglas mingled. Whilst eroticism and mysticism were key themes of the Decadents, there was also a surge of interest in ritual magic, enabled by the flowering of the “Golden Dawn” – the most significant esoteric order in England’s history. Wilde’s wife, Constance, was a member, as was W.B. Yeats, alongside Aleister Crowley and Arthur Machen. All would play a part, directly or indirectly, in the drama of Oscar Wilde’s enchanted & accursed life.
Dancing with Salomé unmasks the occult aspects of Oscar Wilde’s celebrated tome The Picture of Dorian Gray, whilst exploring how the unseen manifested not just in the famous author’s life but in that of his love interest, Lord Alfred Douglas. The gilded backdrop to their ill-fated liaison was the Decadent movement, a literary and artistic feast of the divine and debauched which redefined the lines of male beauty. Curiously, Aubrey Beardsley, the most renowned illustrator of the Decadents, refused to keep any of Oscar Wilde’s books in his home, as he believed, like many of his friends, that the playwright was accursed. Beardsley’s theory is not as far-fetched as it seems if one takes into account the doomed lineages from which both Oscar and Lord Alfred Douglas were descended.

In lieu of being able to do a book signing at the legendary Atlantis bookshop www.theatlantisbookshop.com the equally legendary proprietor & worker of wonders, Geraldine, has sent some bookplates for me to sign. A stone’s throw from the ‘Dilly, a footstep & heartbeat from the British Museum, one feels certain that Wilde & Pals must have sauntered down these streets when the stars were so much brighter, the absinthe was green as carnations and the moon was made for beguiling glances. We may not be able to gather to celebrate the publication of ‘Dancing with Salome – Courting The Uncanny with Oscar Wilde & Friends’ but we can still be beguiled. Copies are available at Atlantis, via Trapart Books www.trapart.net or can be purchased at the link below. The link for ordering the book is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/9198692003

Mark Valentine reviews Dancing with Salomé: Courting the Uncanny with Oscar Wilde & Friends by Nina Antonia in Wormwoodiana. READ HERE. 

Dancing with Salomé: Courting the Uncanny with Oscar Wilde & Friends by Nina Antonia is featured in Oscariana: The Oscar Wilde Society e-Newsletter (#78 December 2021).

To read the complete newsletter, please GO HERE.

Nina Antonia’s new book – ‘Dancing With Salomé – Courting the Uncanny with Oscar Wilde & Friends’

Available now at Amazon in Hardcover, Paperback, and Kindle

A decadent treat comprising a portmanteau of essays exploring the uncanny in the life of Oscar Wilde and his circle. Growing up in the glory days of Amicus & Hammer Films left me with a yearning to utilise the word ‘portmanteau’ in at least one project. Make no mistake there is an aspect of horror inherent in ‘Dancing with Salome’ though it is of the strange and glittering kind which artist Eli John has captured so elegantly in his cover artwork, featuring Wilde’s love interest, Lord Alfred Douglas, morphing into Dorian Gray. 

Each of the essays were initially housed by independently produced publications including ‘Wormwood’ ‘Fiddler’s Green’ ‘Egaeus Press’ and ‘Fenris Wolf’. There is more creative freedom outside of mainstream media and none more so than in the field of supernatural literature. When commercial publishers recall the phantasmagorical (another favourite word) they go no further than reprinting the tried and tested, Dickens, M.R James and if you are exceedingly lucky, Arthur Machen. The supernatural is regarded as a tricky field, the unseen at odds with an era pledged to ‘reality’. As Oscar Wilde once opined ‘Leave us with some unreality!’ The 1890’s was the decade of Peacocks and Sphinx’s, the forerunner to the ‘Swinging Sixties’ only infinitely more enticing and well mannered. It seems no accident that just at the point of Wilde’s imminent success with ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ that the Golden Dawn, the most significant esoteric lodge in England’s history, should also bloom. The initiated included Wilde’s wife, Constance, W.B Yeats, Aleister Crowley and Arthur Machen, all of whom would play a part, either directly or indirectly in the drama of Oscar Wilde’s enchanted and accursed life.  

Nina Antonia was interviewed recently for issue 3 of Mashzine. To purchase, please go here.

LISTEN NOW – Some Candy Talking Podcast. Josef Oscar Weinstein for MoJo Edinburgh interviews Nina Antonia.

Josef Oscar Weinstein knows a thing or two about Pop Culture so it was a pleasure chatting to him for the ‘Some Candy Talking’ Podcast. An hour flew by in reminiscences and anecdotes about the usual suspects, Johnny Thunders, the New York Dolls, Peter Perrett and The Only Ones. And the generation gap which proliferated between children and their parents in the 1970’s. Whilst its all very cosy for dad to buy his son or daughter’s first guitar or for Ma and Pa to take the kids to Glasto, it can blunt the fangs of self discovery. A stormy rite of passage can be exhilarating, it teaches you to stand on your own two feet, not walk in the footsteps of those that have gone before you. It was thought provoking talking to Josef about how much my father detested the New York Dolls because his reaction deepened my passion for the band, who really flew the flag for disenfranchised delinquents. Although it’s almost half a century ago, they still remain one of the most influential bands of the last 50 years. And my father never changed his mind.  Does it matter? For the kids who became punks, it surely did. 

“Beautiful rare white deer shot dead by police in case it upset motorists. Traditionally, a messenger from the other-world, it was a white deer who recalled Thomas the Rhymer to the Elfin Queen. May those who perpetrated this brutality never know a moment’s peace.” – Nina on Twitter.

Read the article Nina Antonia was interviewed for: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-58731168

One from the vaults: An interview with Robert King, formerly of the Scars, about life and love with the Moon Goddess otherwise known as Nico. Despite my best efforts at the time, I was unable to get a book deal for a Nico project. I’m happy to see a major new biography has been published. However, it’s unfortunate that publishers now consider academics to be writers and writers to be under-qualified unless they are academics, a situation that is increasingly prevalent in the U.K.  

In the interview, Robert provides us with an intimate snapshot of latter day Nico, strung out in Notting Hill, yet still formidable. It was only until recently, the market being run down in preparation for a new shopping mall that one could still catch a glimpse of the Ghosts of Portobello, an international throng of tatterdemalion bohemians in the fading colours of a long dead summer who appear momentarily as the day turns to dusk. Nico dressed in black, emerges as a shadow in preparation for the night.

Read it Here