The Orton Diaries

Joe Orton; John Lahr (editor)

£12.99

Publication date 29 March 2012
| Paperback
| 328pp

ISBN: 9780413777249

About The Orton Diaries

Unexpurgated insight into the life of one British theatre's

most controversial figure of the 1960s

From December 1966 until his murder in August 1967, Joe Orton kept a series of diaries, which are one of the most candid and unfettered accounts of that remarkable era.

The diaries chronicle frankly and hilariously the literary successes (capped with an Evening Standard Award and overtures from the Beatles), the rejection of all conventions, and the astonishing sexual adventures (at his mother's funeral... with a dwarf in Brighton...) of a true literary iconoclast who believed there was no sense in being a rebel without applause.

Joe Orton was born on a housing estate in Leicester in 1933. During his short life he rose to fame as one of England's most provocative young dramatists and epitomised London in the swinging 1960s. His openly gay lifestyle has turned him into an iconic figure. He was murdered by his mentor and lover Kenneth Halliwell in 1967.

The Author

Joe Orton

Joe Orton was born on a housing estate in Leicester in 1933. He joined RADA in 1951, where he met his mentor and lover Kenneth Halliwell. Living on the dole (and briefly in prison, for defacing library books) the two collaborated on novels, though Orton's solo writing brought him more fame. During his short life he rose to fame as one of England's most provocative young dramatists and epitomised London in the swinging 1960s. His openly gay lifestyle has turned him into an iconic figure. He was murdered by Halliwell in 1967.

John Lahr

John Lahr is the author of the biography of Joe Orton, Prick Up Your Ears. He also wrote the biography of his father the comedian Bert Lahr, Notes on a Cowardly Lion, as well as the critical study, Coward the Playwright. His novels are The Autograph Hound and Hot to Trot. He has published three collections of essays, Acting Out in America, Astonish Me and Automatic Vaudeville, of which the London Review of Books said he was 'the Leavis of the performing arts'.