In 1972, while a student at the London Film School, I directed, with a team of other students, a film based on John Berger’s book A Fortunate Man, for the British Film Institute. Being young and inexperienced, I was extremely nervous about asking John if we could use his book as a basis for a film, knowing how publishers and agents guard their intellectual property. But with just one phone call to John everything was agreed. He maintained that the ideas contained within the book were, in his words, “open to all”.
That was typical of Berger, a generous and open-minded man who encouraged young people to make the most of their opportunities.
