English whimsy had a good run for its money in the 1960s. Pop culture hoovered it up and began to mass-produce it in a variety of forms. It's odd now to remember how it looked on the hoardings and billboards and store ads: the posters of girls whose tresses became rivers; the Medusa-like transfigurations of our rock idols, those tousled Monica Lewinskies with hair on their chests. Only it wasn't quite 'rock' in those days - and certainly not while Syd Barrett, the master of whimsy, was floating around on the English pop scene.

LRB 2 January 2003 | PDF Download