Towards the end of 1979, Antonia Fraser gave an interview to the Washington Post in connection with her book Charles II (renamed ‘Royal Charles’ so as not to confuse a sequel-bombarded American public). She records her final exchange with the interviewer in the tersely effective style of the diaries from which this book is adapted:
Man, hopefully, at the end: ‘Just one more question, what is Harold Pinter like about the house, all those pauses and enigmatic statements, I’ve always wondered?’ Me, briskly: ‘Keep wondering.’
‘Keep wondering.’ Excellent phrase: curt, witty, and just abrupt enough to see off a line of inquiry without giving offence. Her husband would, you’d have to imagine, have responded with a robust Anglo-Saxonism.
And there’s the reason that this book is so interesting: we did keep wondering, all of us. What was it with those two? We need wonder no more. As an act of memorial devotion, Lady Antonia has turned her daily diaries into this memoir of their 33-year relationship.
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