Last Post

Frederic Raphael

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English

Carcanet Press
05 January 2024

Biography; Memoirs

Last Post has a double life; it both sounds for the gallant fallen and recalls what spurred freelance journalists, in all those yesterdays before e-mail, to get their copy in the pillar-box by deadline time. Frederic Raphael's compendium, written in the lively equivalent of the French epistolary second person singular, is a rare mixture of loud salutes, occasional raspberries and affectionate farewells.

Its intimacy delivers frankness that formal biography, however plumped with proper sources, seldom achieves. As the parade goes by, Last Post becomes what classicists call a 'prosopography'. Raphael's own versatility shows up in the varieties of tone and vocabulary in long letters of tribute to the two Stanleys Kubrick and Donen, Ken Tynan, Leslie Bricusse, Tom Maschler, Dorothy Nimmo the known and the less known but no less valued; finally, above all, in farewell to his beloved daughter Sarah.

By: Frederic Raphael
Imprint: Carcanet Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 135mm,
ISBN: 9781800173033
ISBN 10: 1800173032
Pages: 522
Publication Date: 05 January 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Frederic Raphael was born in Chicago in 1931 and educated at Charterhouse and St John's College, Cambridge. His novels include The Glittering Prizes (1976), A Double Life (1993), Coast to Coast (1998) and Fame and Fortune (2007); he has also written short stories and biographies of Somerset Maugham and Byron. Frederic Raphael is a leading screenwriter, whose work includes the Academy Award-winning Darling (1965), Two for the Road (1967), Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), and the screenplay for Stanley Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999). The first volume of Personal Terms was published by Carcanet in 2001, with- subsequent volumes in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2013.

Reviews for Last Post

'Raphael's intelligence and acerbic wit are undiminished... Whether you've lived through most of the years covered in Last Post or not you'll be bound to find these letters to the dead who cannot answer back immensely entertaining.' Brian Martin, The Spectator 'This book contains tremendous erudition and intelligence, blistering scorn for mediocrities and frauds, tenderness for a few favourites and irony at its most shapely and elegant.' Richard Davenport-Hines, Literary Review 'Frederic Raphael leaves unlocked a virtual postbox of unsent letters. Insistently addressing ""you"", the real subject is ""I"". He beards old friends, family, collaborators and antagonists; settling scores; mentioning his Oscar once or twice; allowing his wit free rein.' Brian Morton, The Tablet