Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #397304 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Synopsis
From December 1966 until his murder in August 1967, Joe Orton kept a series of diaries that prove to be a candid account of that era. They chronicle his literary success - capped with an Evening Standard Award and praise from the Beatles - and his sexual escapades in unusual places.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating pastiche of 1960's London
I first had the great fortune to encounter this book whilst on holiday in West Africa in 1989 - since then I have read it countless times..I have never tired of it, and each time it is as witty, fresh and provocative as ever.

Through Joe's words we encounter him visiting the Beatles and Brian Epstein to present them with a film script..his enduring friendship with Kenneth Williams (a sad, suffering individual who never really came to terms with his sexuality) the seamier, seedier side of Joe's world: "cottaging" in the Holloway Road and rent boys in Morocco.

The pivotal relationship in the book is naturally Joe's partner Kenneth Halliwell. Halliwell was originally a svengali figure to Joe as he encouraged Joe's talent for writing...as Joe's star ascended, Kenneth's descended and he was extremely bitter and jealous; quote: "All you people that are mad on Joe have no idea what he is like"..Halliwell found it humiliating to play second fiddle to Orton; finding himself pushed further and further into the background and relegated to role of "housewife"

On the 9th August 1967, some 9 or so months after starting the diaries Halliwell would be Orton's Nemesis and murdered him in a brutal, explosive rage - staving his head in (police would find brain matter and blood spattered all over the walls in the bedsit) then taking a overdose of Nembutal - the suicide note stated that the diaries held the explanation for this savage attack.

Mysteriously the diaries ended on 1st August - with Orton murdered on the 9th August. This was very unusual for Orton who wrote every day in his diary - this has led some to speculate what could have been the content of the final entries - if indeed they existed.

A fascinating, campy tour-de-force of 1960's London.

Fascinating and Repelling At The Same Time....
I first encountered Joe Orton in the pages of Kenneth Williams' autobiography, "Just Williams". It was while rummaging around the shelves of a second-hand bookshop recently that I discovered "The Orton Diaries", and, my curiosity about the man rising, I bought it.

I sat and read it from cover to cover in 2 or 3 sittings (university reading, alas, having to take precedence!). Although I knew (courtesy of K.W.) that Orton had written a frank and open diary, I hadn't realised just how frank it would be. His accounts of somewhat sordid searches for sex, coupled with his description of lovers and sexual acts, left me open-mouthed and somewhat repulsed - an effect that I'm sure has Joe grinning, wherever he is today. His views on life and those around him show a wry humour, and also reveal an undercurrent of bitter rage at the world.

The diary is written from after Joe's career as a playwright hit success; it would be interesting to read about life was like for Joe and his lover, Kenneth Halliwell, before Joe hit the big time.

From the diary, it's very easy to see why Halliwell became so angry with Joe and how frustrating life with him must have been. Orton frequently comes across as selfish, arrogant, egotistical and opinionated, and his accounts of his sexual conquests (which, by all accounts, Halliwell was actually able to read, due to Joe's leaving the diary where he could find it) must have saddened and infuriated Halliwell in equal measure. The calm way in which Joe's murder and Halliwell's suicide is recounted at the end really makes you stop and think.

After the tragedy of the ending, there is the brilliant addition of the Edna Welthorpe correspondence - letters that Joe wrote to various people under the guise of various assumed names. They really are brilliantly funny and show the lighter, quirkier side of Joe's character.

All in all, this is a vibrant book, filled with quirks and tragedy throughout, and I thoroughly recommend it to anybody with an interest in people, the world of theatre and playwriting.

Simply brilliant
Three things make The Orton Diaries quite simply an outstanding read:

First, it's a superb portrait of a great creative artist: Orton was one of our best modern playwrights who in his all-too-brief life produced some classics. What he might have given the world if he had lived --- today he would be 73 --- is anybody's guess, but the three truly great plays that he left us with are still loved to this day.
Second, it's an equally marvelous sketch of 1960s London at its most swinging --- groovy baby! Orton casually rubs shoulders with The Beatles, Kenneth Williams and countless other famous figures when the Smoke was the international Capital of Cool.
Third, they are uproariously funny. I have (no false modesty here!) a great sense of humour but relatively few things, books included, make me actually laugh out loud. This book does. Better yet, it STILL does so after about fifteen years and so many re-readings I've lost count.
(I thought about adding: Fourthly, he's also a famous son of my home city of Leicester, but thought better of it!).
Orton's diary is a true, proper diary, genuinely written day to day by himself as an exercise in reflection and self-knowledge. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Buy it, read it, re-read it, treasure it. You'll laugh (often, loud and long), think, and in the end be made sad. Sheer brilliance.