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. The Times Literary Supplement said, ‘Aphoristic, lapidary and sumptuously reflective by turns, Personal Terms is a joy to read both for Raphael’s prose and mental powers. It is a work of iridescent intelligence, seductive charm, urbane temper and unflagging delight…’
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Reviews
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
Raphaels intelligence and acerbic wit are undiminished... Whether youve lived through most of the years covered in Last Post or not youll be bound to find these letters to the dead who cannot answer back immensely entertaining.
Brian Martin, The Spectator
Praise for Frederic RaphaelA hilarious and disillusioned page-turner.
Peter Green, The TLS
Against the Stream offers many insights into Raphaels "double life". An American who made his career in Britain. A Jew who went to Charterhouse and Cambridge. A Hollywood script-doctor who read Ancient Greek for fun. Vain, sharp-tongued, but the sort of truth-teller Britain needed then and needs now.
David Herman, Standpoint
In these notebooks, Raphael shows himself alert to every vanity but his own, a shortcoming that, far from repelling a reader, becomes part and parcel of the their fascination. He is one of those writers who most reveals himself in his acerbic anatomy of others.
Anthony Quinn, Telegraph
Aphoristic, lapidary and sumptuously reflective by turns, Personal Terms is a joy to read both for Raphaels prose and mental powers. It is a book of iridescent intelligence, seductive charm, urbane temper and unflagging delight - indeed a minor masterpiece.
Times Literary Supplement