Last Post has a double life; it both sounds for the gallant fallen and recalls what spurred freelance journalists, in all those yesterdays before e-mail, to get their copy in the pillar-box by deadline time. Frederic Raphaels compendium, written in the lively equivalent of the French epistolary second person singular, is a rare mixture of loud salutes, occasional raspberries and affectionate farewells.
Its intimacy delivers frankness that formal biography, however plumped with proper sources, seldom achieves. To John Schlesinger, "Fuck em all dear," you used to say. And God knows, you did your best.; Ludwig Wittgenstein saying What do you know about philosophy, Russell, what have you ever known?; Cyril Connolly to William Somerset Maugham who was complaining about his lack of true lovers, ...then although the room was chilly, no one cared to poke poor Willie; You bloody fool, the first words said by a venerable professor to George Steiner.
As the parade goes by, Last Post becomes what classicists call a prosopography. Raphaels own versatility shows up in the varieties of tone and vocabulary in long letters of tribute to the two Stanleys Kubrick and Donen, Ken Tynan, Leslie Bricusse, Tom Maschler, Dorothy Nimmo the known and the less known but no less valued; finally, above all, in farewell to his beloved daughter Sarah.
Industry Reviews
This book contains tremendous erudition and intelligence, blistering scorn for mediocrities and frauds, tenderness for a few favourites and irony at its most shapely and elegant.
Richard Davenport-Hines, Literary Review
Raphaels intelligence and acerbic wit are undiminished... Whether youve lived through most of the years covered in Last Post or not youll be bound to find these letters to the dead who cannot answer back immensely entertaining.
Brian Martin, The Spectator
Praise for Frederic RaphaelA hilarious and disillusioned page-turner.
Peter Green, The TLS
Against the Stream offers many insights into Raphaels "double life". An American who made his career in Britain. A Jew who went to Charterhouse and Cambridge. A Hollywood script-doctor who read Ancient Greek for fun. Vain, sharp-tongued, but the sort of truth-teller Britain needed then and needs now.
David Herman, Standpoint
In these notebooks, Raphael shows himself alert to every vanity but his own, a shortcoming that, far from repelling a reader, becomes part and parcel of the their fascination. He is one of those writers who most reveals himself in his acerbic anatomy of others.
Anthony Quinn, Telegraph
Aphoristic, lapidary and sumptuously reflective by turns, Personal Terms is a joy to read both for Raphaels prose and mental powers. It is a book of iridescent intelligence, seductive charm, urbane temper and unflagging delight - indeed a minor masterpiece.
Times Literary Supplement
