Photographer Unknown, (Leather Jacket)
Eric Bishop-Potter is a former journalist for the Press Association and the author of three books – “Jimmy, Mrs. Fisher and Me”, “A Ruined Boy”, and his most recent book “Dear Popsy: Collected Postcards of a Private Schoolboy to His Father”.
His book “Dear Popsy” tells of the decadent goings-on at St Cloud’s, an exclusive public school where the boys prefer rouge to rugby and bondage to Bunsen burners. Michael Palin, known for his work in Monty Python, said of it: “…very, very funny…carries on where Decline and Fall left off… I think I am jealous.”
“Do you ever wear leather?“ the guy asks.
“What?”
“Leather. Do you like leather?”
“It doesn’t exactly wipe me out.”
“I like to see boys in leather.”
I look at him cool. “Okay,” I say, “what is it you want and how much are you willing to pay for it?”
“I’ve got a leather jacket upstairs…Would you put it on?”
“Just put it on?”
“I’ll go and get it.”
He leaves the Horror Hole and returns a few minutes later holding a leather flying jacket with a lambswool collar. There are tears in the jacket’s sleeves, and the lambswool is yellow with age. John Wayne could’ve worn it in one of those crappy war films he made. “Put it on,” the guy says.
I give him a spiky smile and put on the jacket. “Okay, where’s the plane, and what time’s take-off?”
“Drop your jeans and turn around.”
-Eric Bishop-Potter