Once I was unwittingly rude to Dr [Jonathan] Miller when he asked for a copy of Racine's Andromaque which I handed him commenting involuntarily, "I suppose that's the next classic you're going to mess about with". At the time I was resentful of the style he had chosen to apply to his production of The Merchant of Venice which he set in the late nineteenth century. ... the anachronisms marred the performance not least when the clean-shaven Shylock spoke the line, "Pluck my white beard".

[at the head of the index]: Author’s note: A simple key to most persons and places, also to some works of art and literature, mentioned in the text. This is not a scholarly work so there are few cross references.

[in the index] Norrie, Ian: because most entries, of persons and places, are related to the author’s life it is not thought necessary to duplicate them here even though this may cause pain to professional indexers.

My final undoing came about through Jonathan Cape and the unexpurgated edition of T. E. Lawrence's "The Mint". Cape had been waiting for years for the right moment to publish what was considered to be 'a hot property'. There had been eager interest in it, especially from America, and Jackson's had booked many orders. It was Jonathan himself, always antagonistic to booksellers, who wrote to demand that I give an undertaking, on behalf of Jackson's, that I would not export any copies of "The Mint" to the States. I told Joiner I felt obliged to agree. He said, 'all right, Loll', automatically assuming that I would not honour my word. I saw it differently. The axe fell quickly. A board meeting was called ... It was at once proposed, seconded and passed that my salary should be halved.

Some [of my superiors] were outraged when I displayed a large notice in the shop window exhorting one and all to save the Greenhill lavatory (a small men's urinal in a roadside wall greatly appreciated by passing lorry drivers).