The Blue Touch Paper (43 page)

All other photos courtesy of the author.

Two short sections of the book, about Lancing and New York in 1965, were previously published in a different form in
Areté
.

With thanks to Ann and Lindsay Todd, Tom Stoppard, Philip Roth and the Peggy Ramsay Foundation for permission to quote from letters.

Illustrations

Mum and Dad, Abbey Close Church, Paisley, just having married, 22 October 1941

My sister Margaret and DH St Leonard's, 1951

DH with Roger Dancey, cataloguing the primal scream, California, 1965

The Fields House prefects at Lancing College, 1964: first L, James Watson; third from L, DH; centre, Patrick Halsey, who took me to Dachau

Portable Theatre: watching from the stalls, Snoo Wilson, DH and Tony Bicât

Cambridge: DH pen and ink drawing by Richard Cork, 1966

Howard Brenton, photographed by Snoo

Royal Court: the playwrights of the 1971 season, L to R, DH, Ted White­head, David Storey. Front and centre, the gatekeeper, John Osborne

DH with Tennessee Williams, Manhattan, 1978

Andrew Dickson, Rene Augustus, Helen Mirren, Hugh Fraser, Mick Ford, band and vocals for
Teeth 'n' Smiles
, 1975

Fanshen
, the first production

Bill Paterson, in charge of black propaganda in
Licking Hitler
, 1977

Kate Nelligan, the bona fide great actress in
Plenty