Almost a Gentleman

Book excerpt: Following on from Osborne's first autobiographical book, A Better Class of Person, this book looks at the period 1955 to 1966. It covers the foundation of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre to the death of his artistic director and Osborne's mentor, George Devine. At the Royal Court he experienced years of high theatrical achievement and low backstage comedy. For the playwright it was a decade of baffling and often ludicrous notoriety and of emotional and matrimonial upheaval. During this period Osborne wrote The Entertainer, Luther, A Portrait for Me and Inadmissible Evidence, was propositioned by Marlene Dietrich, spent the night in a Mexican brothel, consoled Vivien Leigh, grappled with the Lord Chamberlain in St James's Palace and won an Oscar.