Crowley had a good business-like relationship with the well-known London bookshop Foyle's, which was then in its enormous flagship premises opposite the Phoenix Theatre on Charing Cross Road, abutting Manette Street (now moved to slightly smaller premises next door at 107 Charing Cross Road). In Crowley's day, and until recently, Charing Cross Road was the centre of London's secondhand book trade – a couple of shops still survive, valiantly hanging on – and when Crowley was looking for a book, Thomson's City of Dreadful Night, he told a friend he was going to “ransack Charing X Road”.
As for Foyle's, he was on almost social terms with Christina Foyle, and was a familiar face in the occult department, buying as well as selling, although selling was important: after being asked to speak, he manage to sell them 200 copies of Magick on account at 5/- each.
Foyles Literary Luncheons were something of an institution: they were held at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, and sometimes attended by several hundred people. “Where are ‘literary lunches’ mentioned in the Gospels?” Crowley asks in his diary. And the answer is “An herd of many swine feeding.” 1
And so it came to pass that on 15 September 1932 Crowley gave his talk about ‘The Philosophy of Magick’, and was able to record in his diary “Made a good speech!!!!!!”.