This is an account of two men, both writers, who rose to eminence at about the same time. Their destinies proved very different, in the main because of a fundamental difference of character. It seems that Hamlet was right in saying ‘There is a destiny that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will’. John […]
Jimmy Ballard’s origins are well-known. He grew up in Shanghai, in Japanese-held China during the Second World War. If we are to believe him, he liked the Japanese. Steven Spielberg’s prodigious career as movie director was in its earlier stages when he filmed Empire of the Sun in 1989 – this was Jimmy’s novel. In […]
One writes a book. It involves perhaps much of one’s inner self. Your publisher accepts it, while possibly suggesting ways of improving it. The best part of a year passes before your book appears before the public. Possibly it may be reviewed: possibly not. But supposing you are an actor. You are on stage.The curtains […]
Good things happen in bars. Some bars, at least. I was into my second marriage in 1967, and my wife was pregnant. So I had taken her off for a warm winter stay on the isle of Malta, sunning itself there in the Mediterranean. We were sitting in the hotel bar one evening. Plenty of […]
In 1955, Charles was a new member of the distinguished directors directing Faber and Faber. Anyone who had contact with Charles was fortunate indeed. He was a man of great good humour and knowledge, with a brave fondness for both jocularity and drink. One of the first proofs of his wisdom was his rescue of […]
Good old Harry! Life was somehow more fun when Harry was around, growling about the state of the world, laughing about the state of SF! For some while, Harry had been doing illustrations for comics. Then he wrote his first novel, Deathworld, and sent it to John W.Campbell, celebrated editor of Astounding – the leading […]
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 […]
Those people I have been talking about so far are or were well-known. Harold Boyer is the great man from my early life, his name is little known beyond the public school where he taught. That is to say, West Buckland School in North Devon. I was at school at West Buckland in the early […]
When I was caught with a demand for more income tax than I could manage to pay, I had to sell up our lovely Orchard House, swimming pool and all; I took my family to live in Moreton Road at Number 16, the last house in the street. There I began to write about a […]
Iris Murdoch was a highly successful novelist. She and her husband lived in North Oxford. She and I saw quite another ‘between books’, as they say. There was a time in China when I injured my foot and was quite lame for a day or two. Iris had dipped into her little store and given […]
