Laura del Rivo

[Flint]

On a recent visit to Portobello Market I had a brief chat with Notting Hill writer Laura Del-Rivo.
Ms Del-Rivo, who has for some time run a stall at the market (she sells socks and stockings), achieved some literary fame with her novel The Furnished Room, which was published in 1961 and made into a film called West 11 in 1963.
I asked her whether she was writing something at the moment.
She was surprised by the question:

-I've never stopped writing -she said-, but they won't publish it.

I told her I would have thought that someone who had published a successful novel that was made into a film wouldn't have so much difficulty getting her stuff published.

-I thought so, too - she said.

Here's a picture of Laura Del-Rivo in 1961 by Ida Kar

[Liam]

Never heard of her, and she's not on Wikipedia; just how famous is she?

Have you read The Furnished Room yourself, Flint? What is the genre? What is the quality? What is the novel about?

[Flint]

Her first novel achieved some success but she never really became a famous writer.
The Furnished Room is a sort of bildungsroman embellished with a murder story. The idea of the novel and the plot are good but the narrative technique is not mature or skilled enough - what is normally termed as a promising first novel by a young writer.
It is a sort of a special-interest book for those who are interested in 1950s bohemian London. An independent publisher, Five Leaves Publications, has reissued a number of novels of those days: Colin Wilson’s Adrift in Soho, Terry Taylor’s Barons Court All Change (said to be the first novel that mentions LSD) and Laura Del-Rivo’s The Furnished Room.

Here are some links with reviews, etc, plus a Wikipedia entry for the film West 11:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011...el-rivo-review
http://fiveleavespublications.blogsp...thi%20Unsworth
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/the-furnished-room/
http://suite101.com/article/beats-bu...assics-a397796
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_11

[Bernadette]

Laura Del-Rivo currently writes dark, atmospheric stories which remind you of a Harold Pinter play. I’m looking at them at the moment, so watch this space.