Doris Lessing and I met at the Society of Authors. We enjoyed a couple of meals together afterwards. She was the most agreeable company. A pleasure to be with. I took to going to her house. She was looking after her son.
As we grew older, the odd exchange tended to die away, as alas such matters do.
But before that, we found we were both appearing in Edinburgh at the literary festival. We got talking. At this stage in my life, I was doing a lot of acting with my ‘SF BLUES’ team, and had with me a script of a play. Doris was interested, so we put this sketch on in Edinburgh.
Together we performed the sketch – I forget its name – where I was Adolf Hitler, who has retired and lives in a bungalow on England’s South coast. Doris is the reporter who comes to interview him.
“But you must feel your career went wrong somewhere, sir.”
“I became crazy about Nazi uniforms. I slept in mine.”
“And I understand that a young lady slept with you, sir.”
“Mmmm. Trouble was, the uniform was rather tight.”
Or words to that effect…
We were cheered, as the saying has it, to the echo. Doris was marvellous.
Brian on Doris in 2013: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01n3nlw
