To A:
I shall miss you so much when I’m dead
The loveliest of smiles
The softness of your body in our bed
My everlasting bride
Remember that when I am dead
You are forever alive in my heart and in my head
Harold Pinter to Lady Antonia Fraser
Written in the summer before he died
In all this snow, I’ve had time to catch up on this week’s newspapers and I found this article in The Times on Saturday.
You’re probably all too young to remember the scandal.
It was 35 years ago, after all.
Two marriages ripped apart so very publicly by an affair between the aristocratic socialite historian and author, Lady Antonia Fraser, and the Jewish playwright, Harold Pinter.
She was the daughter of Lord Longford, wife to the Tory MP, Hugh Fraser, and the mother of his six children. He was married to the actress Vivienne Merchant.
As a teenager who had just discovered the historical novel, I was fascinated and simultaneously so sad for all the protagonists.
Everyone said that it couldn’t last, because they were so different. But it was their very difference that made them so strong and their marriage would survive for over three decades.
After Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, they were one of the most talked-about couples of the Seventies.
I thought some of you might like to read their story.
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