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Published: 30 June, 2011
by DAN CARRIER

IT would be a great shame if the mercurial talents of Welsh artist Nina Hamnett slipped into obscurity, so it is with a sense of real relish that I can inform you a film made by punk-playwright Chris Ward on the life and times of the self-styled Queen of Bohemia is being screened this week. 

Called What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor?, it charts the life, times and troubles of Hamnett, who exploded on to the fashionable London art scene in the 1910s and carved herself a hell-raising reputation in the following decades. 

She was championed by members of the Camden Town Group such as Augustus John and Walter Sickert, was good friends with Pablo Picasso, and the life and soul of parties of the period.

But her undeniable talents as an artist were gradually eroded by love of a drink: she would tell bawdy tales in Soho pubs in return for another round, and towards the end of her life was not the best house-trained of guests. 

Ward’s film traces her life, times and legacy. Starring Siobhan Fahey of Shakespear’s Sister fame, it is showing on July 6 at 9.30pm at Dalston Superstore, 117 Kingsland High Street, E8. Admission is free.