Look back in wonder

Ihad completely forgotten about the letter. It’s not that surprising, as I’d received it in February 1981. I was 18 and living with my parents in Northolt, west London. And for at least the past 25 years it had been in the garage in a box. Forgotten.

That was until we decided something had to be done about the mess and had a good old sort out. My daughter found it and  asked: ‘Who’s this from, Dad?’

I knew who it was from the minute she handed it to me. It was from John Osborne, writer of Look Back in Anger. As a sixth- former I’d read the play and loved it. I saw myself in the character of Jimmy Porter, the original angry young man. I remember that I was terribly unhappy when I wrote to him — problems at school. I remember when the reply dropped through the letterbox and my father handed it to me.

But seeing it now was more than just being back there in the family home. It was more than this. The letter was like a prophecy, a fortune telling. Turning it over in my hands I marvelled at the embossed address: Christmas Place, Edenbridge Place, Kent and the all-caps simple header JOHN OSBORNE.

Somehow my letter created a strange bond with the playwright. In the first paragraph he told me that, ‘Well, Steve, I am indeed alive — although a few years ago I’d begun to care little one way or the other.’

Poignantly, he told me that he had never felt more full of energy in every way. That he was almost looking forward to his future and that his work was going well. That year saw the release of his first volume of autobiography, but soon afterwards he’d be struck down with diabetes.