Friday 18 November 1983

Al Alvarez interview, Al's gamble on poker pays off, Financial Review, 18 November, 1983.

This is an interview with one of the idols of my youth Al Alvarez. He wrote that classic study of suicide and the poet Sylvia Plath, The Savage God. Plath suicided in London, in the former apartment of W.B. Yeats. We became friendly for a while after the interview, and went walking near his home on Hampstead Heath. I was completely fascinated by his tales of literary shenanigans. He knew everybody; a lovely man and very helpful to me.