Joe
Orton's London and Tangier diaries covering the period
December 1966 to August 1967 are published by Methuen:
The Orton Diaries
ISBN 9780413736505
Including an introduction by John Lahr and the correspondence
of Edna Welthorpe
The
diaries cover a prolific period in Orton’s life.
He had established himself as a significant writer, was
successful, rich, fêted by his peers and his future
looked very bright.
The diaries are a frank, no holds barred account of his
life. They range from the mundane, overheard conversations
on buses, to the explicit, including candid details of
his many sexual encounters. The diaries should be read
with a certain care. Orton always intended them for publication
and while they stand as a record of his life they are
also a literary work, with ‘Joe Orton’ as
the main character. The effortless conversations and witty
banter indicate a more polished work than real life but
the writing shows Orton at his best, with his signature
macabre humour, the ‘Ortonesque’, running
throughout.
The
diaries reveal a man of fierce intelligence, well read,
funny and clearly revelling in his new found fame and
notoriety as a playwright. They also record the difficulties
he was experiencing in his relationship with Halliwell,
but the closeness and regard with which Orton held him
are apparent. Even after a violent attack on Orton by
Halliwell at the end of their holiday in Tangiers, the
entries on their return to London dwell on Halliwell’s
suffering from hay fever and the ‘ghastly heat’
of the London summer. There is nothing in the diaries
to suggest Orton had any suspicion of what was to come.
You can now purchase the Orton Diaries via our Amazon shop here
(Some editions may be out of print but can be purchased second hand)