Jim Haynes

Jim Haynes was born in northern Louisiana and spent several years in Venezuela before he served in the US military with a unit in Scotland.

He attended Edinburgh University, helped found the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and ran the Paperback Bookshop, notable for a stuffed rhinoceros’ head outside. He moved to London in the mid 1960’s where he immersed himself in the alternative scene, co-founding the Drury Lane Arts Lab space. He was awarded The Whitbread Prize in 1966 before heading to Amsterdam where he co-launched Suck newspaper.

Haynes taught Media Studies and Sexual Politics for 30 years at the University of Paris and published an irregular newsletter about his life and times. In addition he has written an autobiographical memoir, titled Thanks for Coming.

In the late 80s, he edited a series of guidebooks to nine Eastern European countries and Russia. Rather than the usual tourist hot spots each book contained about 1,000 short biographies of people who would be willing to welcome travellers in their cities. Many friendships evolved from these encounters, including marriages and babies.

He collaborated with RK Faulhaber, MS Waldron (irr. app. (ext.)), Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound) & Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson (Stilluppsteypa) on The Sleeping Moustache – described by the Helen Scarsdale agency as “an exquisite manifestation of sound poetry scattered into a tortuous collage mired in an oblique melancholy.”

Fun Fact

Every week since the early 1970’s Jim has hosted a Sunday dinner in his Paris home, which is open to anyone including total strangers. People from all corners of the world come to break bread together, to meet, to talk, connect and often become friends. Jim loves the randomness and believes in introducing people to people.