Harold Pinter

Channelnewsasia.com: "The celebrated British playwright and political campaigner Harold Pinter has been awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for literature, the Swedish Academy announced Thursday."

I am glad Harold Pinter has won this year's Nobel prize for literature. He is 75 and has led a life of strong influence and amazing creativity. My own favourite play of his is The Caretaker. The plays of Harold Pinter were an influence in the budding Adelaide theatrical scene which now thrives. He wrote the screenplay of John Fowler's novel The French Lieutenant's Woman and managed to capture the haunting, at times, desolate aspect of the novel. I thought the film version was worthy of the book . He has also written for television and spoken out for peace. Apart form the honour, he takes home 1.1 million euros. He just has never stopped producing material of quality.

He also writes poems which seem like paintings:

"Poem, 1981

The lights glow.
What will happen next?

Night has fallen.
The rain stops.
What will happen next?

Night will deepen.
He does not know
What I will say to him.

When he has gone
I'll have a word in his ear
And say what I was about to say
At the meeting about to happen
Which has now taken place.

But he said nothing
At the meeting about to take place.
It is only now that he turns and smiles
And whispers:
'I do not know
What will happen next.' "


Harold Pinter