Hippie Hippie Shake - "Oz", Love, Obscenity and Me: The Truth Behind the Rumours Behind the Headlines

When Richard Neville arrived in London in 1966 after a six-month overland trek from Australia, the first thing he did was visit Bibi: "The famous boutique throbbed with The Animals, cash registers and scantily clad women...the air was tinged with the perfume of Arabia, and some of its hash...I nearly fainted". Five years later he was gaoled for 15 months for publishing an obscene article, "Schoolkids Oz". In the intervening years, as editor of "Oz", the hippies handbook and monument to psychedelia, Neville was the darling of the in-crowd: the liberal intellectuals, writers, fashion designers, rock musicians, artists and business people. Through it all he remained amused and objective, frequently startling even his closest admirers with his unexpected views on everything from free love to the Vietnam War.