If I were you I'd mark my words, because apart from being a seminal thinker & slimy foreign art monger, Vas Pretorius DeFerens was something of an enigma to friends, enemies, & medical science alike. Allegedly he was a proud possessor of either three or four perfectly formed testicles, which tourist coach parties of the incurably bi-curious & naive were regularly welcomed to examine (upon a reasonable payment of corkage), just so long as they proceeded slowly through Vas's open fly- at which point invariably he brutally resynthesised those tiny teeth into a sudden playful biting unity, normally after drawing a groper's attention to some trivial detail of architraving, weather, etc. (as advertised, I've completed my memoirs as a short story; a quite draining & frankly illegal process which necessitated breaking all 37 of the past Labour government's Police & Criminal Justice Acts. But in the name of Mammon, what can one do?) So, it's all quite fascinating, & whilst I have no obvious quarrel to pick with any man's physique (with the sole exception of Eric Pickles), I mention these positively material facts to warn that you've unadvisedly strayed from the path, & night must fall. Keep up. You youngsters could learn a lot, if only you paid heed.

Let me confess without duress: I really can't legitimately claim to understand Vas' nature, despite the fact (& source of endless gossip) that we spent multiple lunar months engaged in a perfervid co-habitation in a Hoxton studio; such was his delightful mastery of disinformation, dark propaganda & intoxication that, I never managed to arrive at a final figure for his testes (fleeting glances, all from dangerous angles, tentatively recall they were jet black & vulcanized like his durable character). Whatever ginger evidence I have I lay freely before you; they're only crumbs I spare, each liable to be snaffled up by a myriad of nocturnal beasts coming to life in bracken & furze, but follow them as best you can- it's too late to turn back now. Alas, there are no garnished spicy vol-au-vents to sustain you. You're in way over your head, I fear.

Vas' legendary libido was immune to entropy or ennui. His grinding demands were a continual worry, unconcerned with tradition, expense, or, to be frank, practicality- I'd often discover Dutch gentlemen's magazines (of a kind featuring photography of undraped women) squirreled away in the oddest of places. I knew they were his as Superintendent McGregor, my old Vice Squad pal (since gone freelance), verified his inimitable paw prints. These were good old days of covert cash transactions my boy. Investigation also found disturbing designs & working prototypes for- shall we say gadgets, in many more than one of the two-hundred & thirty-six secret compartments of his secretary. Now, I don't think for a moment Vas' 'preferences' particularly interest you- you've got enough on your plate as it is, looking at those dreadful holes in your old worn boots (are they hand-me-downs?) & the sheer depth of snow round here. But they do cast a slanted light on a brilliant criminal mind, & whilst it may be the case that you maintain law is crime- I make no excuses, offer no apologies. Vas will always be a veritable villain. Not in business practice, where all's fair & little love guaranteed, but in his damnable lack of honour regarding aesthetic criticism. Vas' self-promotion, remarkable before he met me, became nothing less than lupine afterwards- for goodness sake no, I wouldn't climb that tree if I were you; it's the first place they'll sniff out silly. Do get a grip & take some responsibility for your plight! I digress: so, I woke up one morning, a little after noon, to find an estate agents clerk staring at me with undissembled fear. Back in the glory days of the Great Boom, you understand, when any property vacated before teatime would be occupied & fully furnished by vespers, at a sixty percent mark-up. On reflection, that stunt had many of Vassily Perestroika Deferenovitch's hallmarks- handcuffs, treacle, an anaconda, a mousetrap in the first aid box; but how long had he been planning it? Before he met me? After I said what I did on demand about his precious book lionising Andy Warhol? Maybe it was thin skin, or sheer caprice- it scarcely matters does it? Pardon me? Oh, howling? I don't think so. No, my mistake, yes there it is, right behind you. 

 

I reliably heard a week later, through McGregor, that he'd shackled up with Sir Hugh Corduroy in Belgravia. Nice but dim, a remarkable chap, Sir Hugh, could stammer incoherently in no fewer than eight Arabian dialects. Gosh! Hottentot, Farsi, Yiddish, take your pick: he was incomprehensible in it. Anyway, as you may know, previously he was respected as a patron of the arts, pillock of the church, & former director of the V&A etc. Tolerated by peers, trusted by subordinates, feared by staff, a great Englishman- before you could say 'Duchess of Gloucester' he'd pen a more brainless Times diary than Sir Roy Strong. No, trust me, I have clippings. In retrospect it seems accumulatively predictable that a lifetime of total emotional deprivation should have led him into Vas' gingerbread parlour. OK, pipe down, I'm telling my stories, have patience, but yes, now you mention it, they're all around you. Man up. Where was I? Of course, what followed was contemporary folklore- how Sir Hugh, through Vas' 'Caliban Arts', traded the Elgin marbles for Andean wood carvings of doubtful provenance, his Rembrandt sketches for an acrylic tennis racquet pixillage- cats & umbrellas also featured, if memory serves, that's right- created by a second year arts student, some sordid strumpet of no good breeding- his Vermeer for a breeze block & tarpaulin 'installation', his entire portfolio of primary shares for a chance to wrap the outside of Acton in back issues of The World of Interiors: such insatiable insanity. Destruction ensued, as night follows day. I fondly recollect running into him behind King's Cross one wintry evening, in the company of a pretty young Wandervögel; that such a renowned member of Blighty's Establishment should fall into rank disrepair, honestly one shouldn't laugh. I can still picture his ragged silhouette hunched against a brooding February sky, insipid light shining through his fallen arches, rain that spluttered from his choked guttering, & a colony of zoonotic bats hanging around uncomfortably in his cracked façade. He was totally spent, utterly ruined. Died later next spring, ulcerative colitis returned the post-mortem, although the cruel whisper in Whites opined, he was burgled to death. No! Don't start running, that's what they want, they're simply waiting for it. Have you learned nothing? That's better. Anyhow, after inheriting Corduroy's estate, Vincent Pietro DiFerrari consolidated his much-heralded renaissance by leading a popular national crusade to recapture & repatriate all those treasures he himself had shop soiled to sell abroad. Amazingly, or rather inevitably, he once again came up trumps (turned out clauses written in invisible ink were legally binding after all, on the principle of caveat emptor & tuff-titty). There never was any lawful chance to stop the bounder (he was consistently one step ahead), but after that carnival of criminality nobody else even tried. He branched out; diversified, pretty soon there wasn't a pie in the proverbial pantry innocent of his thumbprint. His Tavistock Square pied à terre became Bloomsbury's swinging hot spot, precisely the place to discuss perspectives in post-structuralist criticism, have one's nipples pierced, take a heroin overdose, & play the cocoa-futures market; swaggeroos & mountebanks from five continents perched there. Arbitrageurs, faith healers, nihilistic young rock stars, depraved heiresses with thousand-pound orchids in their hair & many faces of Satan tattooed across the length & breadth of their inner thighs. All these were nothing more than local colour, background noise to VPD's glaring blaring bray. Well whistle if you must, by all means, & respect for trying, but do you really, even in your wildest dreams, think they appreciate Mozart? 

 

Oh, Vas, I've met a few genuinely great men, but only one colossus: he became a cultural reference point, the zeitgeist incarnate. He was the opinion formers opinion former, intellectual fashion leader, international trendsetter, pathfinder & trailblazer. The New Man- one of his wheezes, the New Woman too, for that matter, the New World Order for all I know (he hasn't written me recently). Rottweilers, eco-friendly washing powder, Porsches & red braces! You've never thought about it, have you? But red braces! Like unavoidable diamond bullets of truth! The genius of the man, the anti-mensch, the monster! At his peak, countless leading institutions from the Royal College of Vetinary Surgeons to the Bilderberg Group accredited him. He'd grab a canapé & a glass of Moët at the Soviet ambassador's daughter's sixteenth birthday party (Order of Lenin First Class on his ample bosom), before dashing off to a debriefing with some CIA Head of Station behind Victoria Coach Station. Crikey! A wanky conceited cunt he may've been, but Vas was paid a sum not unadjacent to thirty thousand pounds sterling by a British Broadcasting Corpse to propagate his philosophy for one hour every Monday morning on Radio 4's Today Programme: the horror. I recall the last time I saw Vlad Perrier Difference: live on ITV evening news, barrelling through Heathrow, reporters armed with the sacred light of truth cowering before bodyguards licensed to kill & armed with electric cattle goads. It was only a week after the Crash I believe- he wasn't the sort of Johnny to hang around waiting for women or children, no sir. 'Everything created has a sell-by date', he remarked, almost to himself, before turning triumphantly to face down his inquisitors. 'I'll be back', he announced.

Meaningful pointed questions were being asked by then, OPERATION SCAT came to light, & fifty fat middle-aged merchant bankers awoke with headaches to discover their virginities defiled. We, willy-nilly his fey disciples, awoke with hang-over's to discover our palettes no longer smeared with the actual colours our eyes beheld; in order to have fun one must retain at least a memory of youth. The rest you should know, & here we are. Well, anyway, those were the end of days my friend- when the scary sable forest was just a distant inky line on the horizon, & many & sweet were the birds that sang. Well, I haven't time to stand out here with you chattering all night. Excuse me, but I'm a busy man. Yes, I'm sure I'd feel the same if I were as poor as you. I still maintain it's a lifestyle choice, so own it. Oh, come now, don't take on so- here, you can have my handkerchief, you can't see in this light but it's a red spotted jobbie. Is there a safe route out of here for you? Not really, I made an effort to assist with directions but they're just breadcrumbs. I wouldn't pin too much hope on crumbs. Listen, if you'd stop crying for a moment. And let go of my hand. What's that? Yes indeed, they've got big eyes, haven't they? Don't let them see that you're afraid, it excites them! Look here, I don't mean to be unkind, but sadly it's your own fault, really. In any case, I'm truly sorry, but it's sauve qui peut nowadays. Well, goodbye sonny. And yes, bonne chance to you too. Bye. I beg your pardon? 

Oh, suppertime, I guess.