Fine book about a great man.
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Michael Billington clearly idolises Harold Pinter - and at the end of his marvellous book so did I. To the view that Pinter is the finest writer in the English language of the post-war era I would already have subscribed - but having read this remarkable analysis of his life as well as his works I am now in no doubt that his importance goes beyond even that. For Pinter has a consistency and integrity which combined with his scintillating intelligence, is very rare. From the impoverished eighteen-year-old refusing National Service to the grand old man of the Arts with a Nobel Prize he has not wavered. He believes in the truth at all times, is a stalwart fighter against hypocrisy and lies and has never deviated from the confidence always to say what he believes to be right. Pinter's Art promotes his principles often in so subtle a way that you cannot be offended - but his political views are so muscular and uncompromising that they may give offence - and we are all the better for that!
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Fascinating, if sycophantic, study of a great playwright
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Michael Billington, theatre critic for The Guardian for as long as anyone can remember, was well-placed to set Pinter in a left-wing, theatrical context far removed from the absurdist, psychoanalytical tack taken by critics such as Martin Esslin. Pinter himself offered full co-operation with the writing of this book, and consequently it is full of fascinating, previously unknown information. Hitherto extremely reticent - not to say defensive - about what inspired his work, here Pinter revealed how many of his great plays evolved from incidents in his life and, in the case of his 1978 play Betrayal, divulged information sizzling enough to make the front page of at least one Sunday newspaper. Always a thoughtful writer, Billington's suspicion of the vague or grandoise makes for clarity of argument and helps to demystify somewhat this most mysterious of writers. The faults of the book are the unsophisticated, clod-hopping prose and the fact that his understandable admiration for Pinter is wholly unleavened by critical detachment. Nevertheless, this is an essential text for anyone studying Pinter's work.
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