No, I'd say it's pretty unlikely that he was.  But the London Evening Standard clearly doesn't let nebulous concepts like facts or evidence get in the way of a good story. Or indeed a poor, but sensationalist story. Still, it's quite an achievement to still be a target for the press more than 60 years after your death!  And personally, I never trust a person who can't tell a Satanist from a Thelemite!

"A mystic is one who experiences more of himself than he can articulate."

Jerusalem Press are publishing two limited editions (Deluxe and Standard) of Austin Osman Spare's The Book of Pleasure. The new editions include 'an evocative introduction' by Alan Moore and an 'illustrated analytical magical essay' by Michael Staley.


Alan Moore's 2010 piece on Spare for BBC2's The Culture Show, 4 November 2010

Wormwood Star is the first ever biography of Marjorie Cameron, star of Kenneth Anger's underground classic Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome and wife of Jack Parsons, the rocket scientist and magickal associate of Aleister Crowley.