To make a party, the Tynans asked the Pinters to dinner with the Snowdons. Vivien Merchant asked Margaret whether she wasn't ashamed of being in the Royal Family. Apparently she wasn't.
H.P. sat silent throughout. My only experience of his losing his famous cool was when I asked him about the Arab-Israeli war. He grew excited and said that the Arabs had asked for a bloody good thrashing and had got one.
Frederic Raphael, Personal Terms.
UPDATE: Fast-forward to 2006, and Pinter, now on the other side of the political fence, joins the debate over the Rachel Corrie drama. (Via The Playgoer.)
I wonder when HP changed his views.
Posted by: ilana | Sunday, March 12, 2006 at 07:24 AM
Pinter is werely one of many Jews who came out of the closet after Israel's spectacular success in 1967. For a brief moment, Israel was cool. It didn't last and the fair weather Jews soon crawled back where they came from. Good riddance.
Posted by: david | Monday, March 13, 2006 at 04:59 AM