Skin deep in Soho by Richard Wortley

Skin deep in Soho Reviews

• 
  Timothy

  What could have been the ultimate document of Sixties Soho Striptease, ended up nothing more than a fragmented collection of repetitive, nonsequential observations. Even more annoyingly, Richard Wortley takes a pedestal approach - likening himself to Prof Higgins - to his main subject, Tina. All too often it comes off as misogynistic and trivializing. But that's as if the book had any sense of the whole, which it simply doesn't. Perhaps if it had been given to an editor. It's now a rare book - though not too rare - and it, much like its subject, once obtained doesn't offer up much more than a superficial tease. The companion film produced by Wortley, Carousella, available on the BFI DVD of Primitive London, does a much better job with its subject.