Harold Pinter Archive Blog

Peggy and the WAGS

Peggy did not always get on well with writers’ wives. As Colin Chambers remarks in his biography, Peggy believed that it was the duty of writers’ wives to put their husbands’ talent before their own needs. She corresponded with quite a few of the wives and girlfriends (and gay lovers – in Kenneth Halliwell’s case). Sometimes this correspondence was strictly focused on her clients’ writing, but with others she provided emotional support and professional advice.

 

Surviving letters in the archive show professional relationships with Edward Bond’s wife Elisabeth and John Arden’s wife Margaretta D’Arcy. Several other wives are also mentioned in a professional capacity: Sandra Rudkin as script editor for BBC Birmingham and Robin Chapman’s wife Boo as a translator.

 

A letter to Jo Bolt, on the breakdown of her marriage to Robert Bolt, shows a more compassionate side to Peggy. Peggy had also known the Bolts’ children and had had their daughter to stay for a weekend. When Bolt remarried, Peggy went out of her way to further the career of second wife, actor Sarah Miles. She did however warn Bolt that his insistence on writing a part for his wife into his own screenwriting contracts would look as if Miles couldn’t get by on her own talent. By helping out her clients’ partners, Peggy undoubtedly had half an eye to how this would benefit her writers and their output. It would be unfair though, in my opinion, to suggest that this was her only motive. Her letters to women do convey warmth and empathy, even if they don’t reach the fervid pitch of her correspondence with male clients!

A network of writers

As I work my way through Peggy’s client files I’m realising that the archive brilliantly captures the network of relationships that grew up around Margaret Ramsay Ltd. It’s been really interesting to see which writers got on well together and which fell into opposing camps. One example that brings this to life is the furore caused by John Arden and Margaretta D’Arcy’s frequent disputes with the theatre establishment. When Arden and D’Arcy picketed the RSC protesting about authors’ rights, Peggy received a flurry of letters from her other clients. Opinion was split: Robert Bolt defended Arden; John Bowen didn’t feel he could lend his support to the campaign; and David Hare and John McGrath were motivated to form a new writers’ union. There are many other occasions when clients wrote to Peggy about other playwrights. Some wrote in praise of other’s work, some gave accounts of meetings with other writers or passed on knowledge of contacts or opportunities which might benefit others. It’s particularly interesting to see what the old guard thought of the new generation of playwrights and there are plenty of mentions of Joe Orton, perhaps because Peggy made it clear to her clients how excited she was about her new find.

 

Wracking my brain for specific examples, I found it difficult to remember exactly where I’d found these titbits. So often the mention of other clients is tucked away in post scripts and asides to the main business. A catalogue can only give a partial sense of the relationships between clients: names of correspondents will be key-word searchable; subjects will be indexed and our new cataloguing system allows us to make links between related items. Mapping the influence that clients had on each other will not be straight-forward but hopefully the catalogue will help researchers who want to uncover these connections.    

Follow Peggy Ramsay on Twitter

For a more detailed look at the contents of the archive sign up to my Twitter feed

National Theatre podcast

Listen to David Hare, Simon Callow and Colin Chambers talking about Peggy Ramsay on this National Theatre podcast. I especially like David Hare's recital of a typically forthright letter from Peggy.

A method in the madness

Organising the archive of a woman who, according to her biographer, was prone to flinging papers in the air in fits of exasperation is not easy. My first task was to survey the archive, listing the contents of each box in the hope of discovering some semblance of what we archivists call ‘original order’.

 

Background research is also helpful. From looking at the Library’s records and contacting people involved in the acquisition, I pieced together the custodial history of the archive from its first home in Peggy’s offices to the premises of her lawyer, where it was independently valued before coming to the Library. During the packing process some of the papers had been put into new folders and relabelled. This was not done by Peggy’s staff which explains why the titles sometimes bear scant relation to their contents! This was a useful discovery because I’m aiming to describe the papers as they were created and used and therefore labels that are not contemporaneous aren’t significant.

 

There is a delicate balance to be struck between preserving the original structure of an archive and producing a logical arrangement. Peggy was a great fan of alphabetical filing, everything went in together – client files and general correspondence. I have altered the arrangement slightly, separating client files from correspondence as these are clearly two separate series. Preserving original order isn’t purely about keeping physical arrangement intact, it is about discerning the different activities and functions that Peggy undertook.

 

I am currently working on cataloguing the series of client files. These vary wildly in size and structure depending on how prolific a writer was and to what degree Peggy intervened in their life. Most client files contain correspondence arranged in a vaguely chronologically manner and divided between personal correspondence, stage work, tv and radio, film, publication and individual files for key productions. Rarely are these in perfect order and the survey list helps me to identify the many misfiled papers.

 

Having started at the beginning of the alphabet I have worked my way from John Arden and Alan Ayckbourn through to Robert Bolt and am now moving on to Edward Bond and Howard Brenton. The archive sheds light on the networks that grew up between Peggy’s clients but more about this next week.