YOU might wonder how Michael Moorcock, great chronicler of counter-cultural London and the multiverse beyond, finds inspiration in suburban Texas. But it turns out that his adopted hometown of Bastrop has a pretty colourful history. “It’s named after a Dutch tax collector who absconded with the tax money he collected, jumped on a boat to New Orleans and got off the boat reinvented as Baron de Bastrop,” explains Moorcock. “He’s sort of a hero in Texas because he negotiated between the Mexican government and the American settlers. So he boarded the boat in Holland a criminal and wound up a local hero.” It sounds exactly like the plot of one his own adventure yarns.
Back in 1960s London, Moorcock was the influential editor of magazine, ushering in a ‘new wave’ of progressive sci-fi authors that included JG Ballard. At the same time, he was a key player in the Ladbroke Grove underground, writing and performing with Hawkwind and his own band, The Deep Fix. At 84, he is still firing
