What a joy to listen to Frederic Raphael's seemingly unstoppable outpouring of insightful comment, witty observation, sharp-tongued criticism and hilarious anecdote, last night (Tuesday) at JBW.
All in a sentence he would range over the trashiness and trivia of modern television drama, the falseness of emotions expressed in the media, the pervasiveness of antisemitism, what it was like working with Stanley Kubrick, the relationship between a novelist and his characters, how Josephus obtained the patronage of the Roman Emperor, and even bring in a story from his schooldays - and heap scorn on the headmaster.
He found time too to praise Howard Jacobson's excellent piece, in The Independent last Wednesday (18 Feb), about the anti-Israel antisemitic consensus. Probably Frederic Raphael did not know that Jacobson was sitting in the audience, a couple of seats behind me.
Poor Tom Conti could hardly get a word in - but seemed as fascinated by Raphael's flow as the rest of us. I could not help thinking that Raphael's good old-fashioned education at Charterhouse and Cambridge contributed much to his self-confidence and fluency. As if to make the point himself, he quoted Evelyn Waugh: "the purpose of education is to give a man a good prose style."
I can't promise it will be quite on the same level, but do come along to JBW for my own "Meet The Author" talk about The J-Word on Thursday at 5pm.