Here's a couple of vids of Tobias Churton giving a talk during a book signing event earlier this year at Watkins Books in London. (The quality of some of the questions during the Q&A session is a bit...
)
Part 1 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPEmn4knfQE
Part 2 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPNZgK-648I
Thanks for that Aeon. I think this little lecture is a great advertisement for his book. He's a commonsense guy with a lot of respect for Crowley. It's cool that he found out about him through the mountaineering angle. If I ever meet John Yorke I'll have to remember not to get a "frisson" when I hold the Janus wand (but hey, I get a frisson when I hold a Milanese coin minted in Filippo Maria Visconti's time, but my excuse is that I'm a tarot historian).
I'm about half-way through the book and occasionally I can't put it down. He's got his take on Crowley, and often has insights or ways of putting things that I hadn't thought of. I noted a quote on page 106, for instance:
"Aiwass speaks like Crowley's daimon let loose, smashing up the subtle defences of his intellect and offering him the impetus to see off Mathers. It is odd that Crowley did not immediately recognize Aiwass's voice as that of his own True Self, or Holy Guardian Angel: the Beast set free; such seems clear in
Why Jesus Wept, and Rose must have seen through him. As his mother called him the Beast, Rose brought him to Aiwass."
I thought that was a neat insight, like many others in the book that come in offhand comments. Churton seems like the kind of person who would have become Crowley's friend, like Gerald Yorke, rather than a disciple. He is a sympathetic storyteller, non-judgmental, but clearly understands Crowley's personal flaws (e.g. Crowley didn't practise "the kind of chastity to make a girl feel secure", etc. He understands both sides of the issue and doesn't try to do a Symonds and damn Crowley at every turn)
Absolutely recommended. It should be read (and the videos Aeon linked watched) before Kaczynski if the reader is not already conversant with the main details of Crowley's life.
It is not strictly chronological, but mainly so.
There was somebody on another thread who felt that Sutin or somebody really didn't shine a light on Crowley's spiritual side, what motivated him. I think Churton's biography really does just that; the reader should come away with an appreciation for what drove Crowley, whether or not you agree with everything he (Churton) says. Not an exhaustive biography - we have Kaczynski for that - but a great "take" on his life, with plenty of letters and diary entries I hadn't seen before (I can't wait for Breeze's edition of the Confessions to come out, that's for sure).
On the physical side, it is much lighter and less textually dense than Kaczynski - you can read it quite comfortably sitting down or in bed.