In the Sixties (short story)

In the Sixties was a short story published in the Twelve Stories anthology.

The short story had been originally published in the charity anthology Walking in Eternity, and later in the 2021 charity anthology Bafflement and Devotion: Iris at the Edges.

Plot
A man is waiting at King's Cross station for a train to a spiritual camp up in Wales. In a chalet, Sylvia Plath and Stevie Smith confess that they would want the Cyborg-men to invade Britain. Later, the man and the other people at the camp are hypnotised by a mystic, who tells them that they have to go back to London and destroy Dr Oho. The man finds himself at Dr Oho's party in his home in Maida Vale, where a public call box was the centre-piece.

Joe Orton and Jamie the Highlander have sex, and Angus Wilson, Iris Murdoch, and Dr Oho talk about books, an "Iris" attends the party and is intimate with Robin, and the party wages on. Later on that night, the streets flood. The next morning, many of the guests go inside Dr Oho's public call box, and they and the box disappear, leaving Maida Vale silent. In the North-East of England, in a hospital in Jarrow, newborn Paul Magrs sleeps happily in a cot, rolling his eyes at his amusing dream.

Characters

 * Paul Magrs
 * Dr Oho
 * Iris Murdoch
 * Iris
 * Dusty Springfield
 * Mida Slike
 * Shirley Bassey
 * Tom Jones
 * Reggie Kray
 * Cilla Black
 * Lulu
 * Angus Wilson
 * Judy Garland
 * Marianne Faithfull
 * Brian Jones
 * Dirk Bogarde
 * John and Yoko
 * Michael Moorcock
 * Angela Carter
 * Joe Orton
 * Jackie O
 * Beryl Reid
 * Jamie
 * Steed
 * Emma Peel
 * Mrs Gale
 * Jerry Cornelius
 * Susan Sontag
 * David Bowie
 * Anaïs Nin
 * Robin
 * Noël Coward
 * Marlene Dietrich
 * Patrick Proctor

Continuity

 * Paul Magrs first appeared in PROSE: Bafflement and Devotion.
 * Mida Slike first appeared in PROSE: Mad Dogs and Englishmen.
 * Iris Wildthyme once regenerated into incarnations resembling Shirley Bassey and Beryl Reid. (PROSE: Bafflement and Devotion)