Antonia Fraser - Must You Go?: My Life with Harold Pinter

NONFICTION

Mary Queen of Scots

Cromwell, the Lord Protector

King James VI of Scotland, I of England

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England (editor)

Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration

The Weaker Vessel

The Warrior Queens

The Wives of Henry VIII

Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot

Marie Antoinette: The Journey

Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King

FICTION

Quiet as a Nun

The Wild Island

A Splash of Red

Cool Repentance

Oxford Blood

Your Royal Hostage

The Cavalier Case

Political Death

Jemima Shores First Case and Other Stories

Jemima Shore at the Sunny Grave and Other Stories

ANTHOLOGIES

Scottish Love Poems

Love Letters

Copyright 2010 by Antonia Fraser

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.nanatalese.com

DOUBLEDAY is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.
Nan A. Talese and the colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Originally published in Great Britain as Must You Go?: My Life with Harold Pinter by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, a division of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd, London.

A portion of this work originally appeared in Vogue.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fraser, Antonia, 1932
Must you go? : my life with Harold Pinter / Antonia Fraser.1st American ed.
p. cm.
1. Pinter, Harold, 19302008. 2. Dramatists, English20th centuryBiography. 3. Authors, English20th centuryBiography. 4. Fraser, Antonia, 1932 I. Title.
PR6066.I53Z6457 2010
822.914dc22

[B] 2010007374

eISBN: 978-0-385-53251-8

v3.1

The subtitle of the book declares its contents: this is my life with Harold Pinter, not my complete life, and certainly not his. In essence, it is a love story and as with many love stories, the beginning and the end, the first light and the twilight, are dealt with more fully than the high noon in between, described more impressionistically.

I have based it partly on my own Diaries; these have been kept since October 1968 when I suffered from withdrawal symptoms after finishing my first historical biography Mary Queen of Scots, the centre of my existence for so long. I have also used my own recollections, being careful to distinguish between the two, immediate reactions (I always write my Diary the next morning unless otherwise noted) and memories.

On the whole Harold did not read these Diaries (although he was free to do so: they were not kept secret). I have noted the rare occasions when he made a comment or scribbled something in it himself.

I have also quoted Harold where he told me things about his past, once again noting the source, and have occasionally quoted his friends talking to me on the same subject. Looking back at the Diaries, I see that I always paid special attention to any green shoots where Harolds writing was concerned. Although it was not a conscious process, I suppose this was a consequence of a biographer living with a creative artist and observing what went on first hand.

Harold and I lived together from August 1975 until his death thirty-three and a half years later on Christmas Eve 2008. O! call back yesterday, bid time return, cries one of his courtiers to Richard II. This is my way of doing so.

Taken by ourselves in a booth at the airport the first time we travelled abroad together.

Gaieties C.C.

Harold and Tom Stoppard, as the wicket keeper, with his celebrated red gloves.

29 July 1975. Taking refuge at Diana Phipps barn at Taynton. Harold, George Weidenfeld, Diana.

At the barn.

Patricia Losey, Joe Losey in a Proustian T-shirt, Harold: they were working on a film of la Recherche du Temps Perdu (which was never made).

Harold and Anthony Powell in the woods at The Chantry, Somerset.

New York. Visiting the Tall Ships: 4 July 1976.

With Paddy Chayevsky, winter 1976.

New York. Outside the Carlyle Hotel for the American production of Betrayal.

With the theatrical lawyer Arnold Weissberger, 1978.

New York, 1979.

Jerusalem, May 1978. With Mayor Teddy Kollek.

27 November 1980. The Pinters: leaving Kensington Registry Office.