Quentin Crisp was one of our most cherished satirists and commentators. Immortalised by John Hurt in the touching film version of his book The Naked Civil Servant, Crisp's flippancy, self-deprecation and theatricality masked a fervent intelligence and a sharp eye for the detail of contemporary English life.

Born in 1908, into a resoundingly ordinary middle class family, Crisp was traumatised by the inequities of a boarding school education in Derbyshire before starting work as a book designer. Thereafter he made his living as a life model, before his autobiography was published in 1968. These recordings of Crisp in New York in 1979 arose as a result of the popularity of the film adaptation of that book, and capture one of 'Britain's stately homos' in garrulous form, delighting an invited audience. Cherry Red is delighted to be able to offer these recordings to the public again, after a more than two-decade absence with the addition of a 35-minute interview with fellow artist Morgan Fisher which was undertaken at Crisp's flat in 1980. The package is completed by a series of stunning unpublished black and white photographs of Crisp.

Double CD featuring live recording made at Columbia Recording Studios New York on 22 February 1979. Also includes bonus 35-minute unreleased interview with Morgan Fisher from June 1980.