Cuts and Bruises

The first volume of Frederic Raphael's notebooks, "Personal Terms", was greeted in the TLS as 'a small masterpiece'. With the publication of "Cuts and Bruises", the third volume, we can see the sequence unfolding into a major literary achievement. "Cuts and Bruises" concerns the 1970s, during which Raphael travelled widely (not least to Hollywood, which yields a mordantly sweet and sour account of figures such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and John Schlesinger) and wrote the acclaimed television series, "The Glittering Prizes". Raphael is only incidentally concerned with the world of the famous, though, and has little interest in 'names' and gossip except to notice the discrepancies between public and private faces and to convey the texture of life around him. Greece remains an abiding passion, and the conduct of Greek friends during the last months of the Colonel's tyranny leads to surprising reflections on exile and return. Raphael's notebooks, never intended for publication, are exercises in candour, precise observation and wit. "Cuts and Bruises" adds to the growing impression that Raphael is creating an engrossingly readable, stylish and enduring chronicle of his times.

“"Iridescent intelligence, seductive charm, urbane temper, and unflagging delight-indeed a minor masterpiece." - Times Literary Supplement”

'a minor masterpiece' - Richard Davenport-Hines in the Times Literary Supplement on Personal Terms I. 'You cannot expect to write this well and get away with it.' - George Walden, The Sunday Telegraph.

Born in 1931, Frederic Raphael was educated at Charterhouse and St John's College, Cambridge. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1964. The first of his numerous novels was published in 1956; his most recent, Coast to Coast, is published by Orion. He adapted The Glittering Prizes (1976) and After the War (1988) for television. He has written stories, biographies of Somerset Maugham and Byron, and screenplays, including the Academy Award-winning Darling (1965) and Far from the Madding Crowd (1967). He was the screenwriter for Stanley Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut.

The first volume of Frederic Raphael's notebooks, "Personal Terms", was greeted in the TLS as 'a small masterpiece'. With the publication of "Cuts and Bruises", the third volume, we can see the sequence unfolding into a major literary achievement. "Cuts and Bruises" concerns the 1970s, during which Raphael travelled widely (not least to Hollywood, which yields a mordantly sweet and sour account of figures such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and John Schlesinger) and wrote the acclaimed television series, "The Glittering Prizes". Raphael is only incidentally concerned with the world of the famous, though, and has little interest in 'names' and gossip except to notice the discrepancies between public and private faces and to convey the texture of life around him. Greece remains an abiding passion, and the conduct of Greek friends during the last months of the Colonel's tyranny leads to surprising reflections on exile and return. Raphael's notebooks, never intended for publication, are exercises in candour, precise observation and wit. "Cuts and Bruises" adds to the growing impression that Raphael is creating an engrossingly readable, stylish and enduring chronicle of his times.

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