Book Review: Must You Go? by Antonia Fraser

In Must You Go?: My Life with Harold Pinter, Antonia Fraser uses her diaries to tell the story of her relationship with the playwright Harold Pinter.

This is not a biography of Pinter nor is it a memoir of Fraser’s life. This is all about their relationship - how they met, how they got together, and how they made their relationship work for over 30 years. It is obvious from Fraser’s entries from her diaries that they were very much in love, they respected each other’s talents, and were a support for each other. Many of the entries sound like a who’s who of the literary world as Fraser and Pinter move through it.

Fraser intersperses her own memories with her diary entries, sometimes to explain the diary entry, sometimes to add information. This is a fast read and only the hard hearted will not cry at the end. Any one who is interested in the literary scene will find this fascinating and informative.