Odd this day

17 April 1975

2 min readApr 17, 2025

So, happy 50th anniversary to this entry from Peter Hall’s diary describing a pivotal moment in rehearsals for Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land with Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud.

At rehearsal this afternoon John [Gielgud] asked Harold [Pinter] what the Briggs/Spooner scene was for at the beginning of Act II. What did it give the audience? What did it convey? Harold paused. ‘I’m afraid I cannot answer questions like that, John. My work is just what it is. I am sorry.’

As you may know, if you’re familiar with Letters of Note (although I can’t find a live link to this one), it wasn’t the only time he refused — or was unable — to explain his work:

Dear Master Seaman, I’m glad to know of the interest of Form 5A in THE CARETAKER. I will answer your questions quite frankly. i) Davies’ papers are at Sidcup because that’s where they are. ii) His name is assumed because he assumed it. iii) The two brothers see little of each other because they rarely meet. iv) Aston fiddles with his plugs because he likes doing it. v) When he goes out to walk, he walks. vi) The monk swears at Davies because he doesn’t like him. vii) Davies doesn’t like coloured

…and he was also pretty good at saying ‘no’ to people. I do have the link for this one:

How to say no

Happy Birthday Harold Pinter

news.lettersofnote.com

…and was also capable of unintentionally amusing letters about ice cream:

Harold Pinter's perfectionism included ice-cream sales, letter shows

Exclusive: Document reveals playwright's attention to detail while US book recalls his precision on pauses

www.theguardian.com

…and hated satirist Craig Brown:

Has anyone ever told you they enjoyed your parody of them?

Roy Jenkins. The last thing he ever wrote, as far as I know, was a card which they found on his desk after he died saying he’d enjoyed the parody I’d just done of his book. Harold Pinter, I saw at a party across a room, and he made a throttling gesture at me and the hostess said to him, “Do you want to punch him?” and he said “I wouldn’t dirty my fists”.

…because Craig Brown (presumably while acknowledging the man’s other talents) didn’t think much of Pinter’s later poems:

Private Eye | Harold Pinter's Nursery Rhymes

Read by Craig Brown

www.private-eye.co.uk

…and I’m afraid Brown was right. One of them read as follows:

I saw Len Hutton in his prime
Another time, another time

…which he was so excited at having written, he faxed it to 24 of his friends, then later rang one, playwright Simon Gray, to ask what he thought. The response was

Er, I haven’t finished it yet.

…which is, perhaps, gentler than some of Pinter’s phrasing, but also no less devastating.