Few writers are as inextricably linked with Soho as Frank Norman (1930-80). But he wasn’t just a hard-drinking habitué of its bohemian clubs, pubs, and restaurants, where he knew everyone from Francis Bacon to Paul Raymond. As a onetime jailbird, professional burglar, and bouncer in Soho clip-joints, he was equally at home in the area’s criminal underworld. His rough-and-tumble life provided the raw material for his prison memoir, “Bang To Rights”, which received lavish praise from the novelist Raymond Chandler. He went on to write other memoirs, as well as novels, plays, journalism, and the hit 1960 stage-show “Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be”, which featured music by Lionel Bart.

Forty-four years after his early death, “Soho Night & Day”, his 1966 collaboration with Jeffrey Bernard, was reissued. It combines his writing with Bernard’s stylish and atmospheric black-and-white photos of everywhere from delicatessens to strip-clubs.


Joe Daniel is an award-winning cultural curator. Joe is also Frank Norman's grandson, and the driving force behind the 2024 reissue of “Soho Night & Day”. In 2025 Joe organised the first exhibition of Frank's paintings, from his time in prison in 1955-1957.