![]() ![]() But the intense hostility remained, and my books were often not even reviewed. I escaped to Cornwall with my girlfriend Joy, and in due course we started a family. Everyone was suddenly sick of Angry Young Men. My second book, Religion and the Rebel, was hatcheted, while Osborne’s satirical musical, The World of Paul Slickey, aroused such hostility that he was chased down Shaftesbury Avenue in London by the first-night audience. By the autumn of that year we were being constantly attacked. And the sheer amount of silly publicity we received that summer alienated all the serious critics. He and I were inevitably bracketed together as “Angry Young Men”. That same week, another young writer named John Osborne achieved sudden fame with a play called Look Back in Anger. Unfortunately, the tabloids became fascinated by the phenomenon of a 24-year-old working-class writer who had produced a work of philosophy, and I began to figure in the gossip columns. Fifteen years earlier, in 1956, I had had the curious – but not necessarily pleasant – experience of achieving overnight fame when my first book, The Outsider, was published to excellent reviews from the most respected critics. ![]() T he publication of this book changed my life. ![]()
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