Pillow talk?
Sir: Just as most of us believed that the modern wife possessed an admirable inde- pendence of thought, not influenced by the masculine prejudices of her nearest and dearest, here comes Helen Osborne to shake this belief.
In her review of Claire Tomalin's book Mrs Jordan's Profession (Books, 29 Octo- ber), Helen Osborne refers in an aside to the National Theatre as 'a mausoleum'. Yet when the National opened, her high enthu- siasm for it, as both building and playhouse, was expressed to me personally a number of times. Indeed, she later accepted happily the offer of a job to work there, editing the programmes.
Why, therefore, is the NT now a mau- soleum to her? It can't possibly be because that's what it's become since she — as the lovely Helen Dawson — beavered away on its behalf. Anything less like a mausoleum it is difficult to imagine. It buzzes with life. Can it be that her volte-face is something to do with the fact that her husband, John, famously, and often very wittily, loathes the place? Is the once spirited Helen Dawson, journalist, turning into a John Osborne clone?
John Goodwin
52A Digby Mansions, Hammersmith Bridge Road, London W6
Previous page
