Mortification: Writers’ Stories of Their Public Shame
“One memorable Saturday afternoon, the four of us went to lunch at a superb restaurant on the outskirts of the city. The publicity director of Penguin France and her assistant acted as hosts, even though I was the only Penguin author present. Beryl, loath to eat ‘foreign muck’, was given a large tomato salad while the rest of us feasted on red mullet and lamb. It was a sunny day, so we sat at a table in the exquisite garden drinking champagne, Sancerre and Chateau Haut-Batailley. The two French ...women were regaled with stories of the children’s writer’s black lover’s sexual expertise, including his habit of removing his false teeth prior to intercourse, and as we were laughing Tom Sharpe observed laconically, ‘What is it with this crazy dame?’ Two hours later, flushed and happy, we returned to the Salon, to take part in a joint event. The interviewer was a nervous man who was seriously unacquainted with our books. In desperation he asked us what we thought of each other’s work.MoreLess
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