I worked for John Calder (Obituary, 3 September) for a couple of years in the 70s, as editor of Gambit, the theatre magazine. It was one of the more bizarre experiences of my life. His office in Brewer Street, above a wonderful Italian delicatessen, was chaotic beyond belief. John and Marion Boyars enjoyed a remarkable, spiky relationship, regularly trading barbed comments about the business as they passed each other on the stairs. As to John’s office at the top of the building, I had never seen anything like it. The floor was literally covered in a kind of manuscript compost, several inches thick. It was as though he simply tossed authors’ hopes and fears on to the floor once he’d cursorily looked at them. Downstairs we all gave the appearance of working, but trips to the pub were frequent.
I didn’t waste the experience, however, as I turned it into a BBC radio play, Mucky Books, which was apparently circulated among the knowing for several years afterwards. Of course, I promised the BBC it was all entirely fictional.
Chris Barlas
Sainte Foy, Varen, France
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