A Londoner's Diary ; Bbc Political Editor Andrew Marr On Gang Warfare in Brighton, and Hockney's Gentle Bid to End Bossiness

Summary

---

The nights are closing in and it's time for David Hockney to fly back to the Californian sun. He famously fled to the brighter colours and more liberal lifestyle of the Pacific coast way back in the Sixties, but in recent years he's been spending more time in London and Yorkshire again, returning to his roots as he grows older. As America succumbs to antismoking bans and a new puritanism, he finds it more congenial here, though he remains a staunch libertarian, hostile to the foxhunting ban, for instance.

I've been interviewing him for the BBC; in the corner of his studio there were placards reading 'End Bossiness Soon'. The last time, he'd given me badges with the same slogan. 'Soon?' I asked. Well, he explained, '"End Bossiness Now" seemed a bit peremptory, you know, not very English.' An earthier Hockneyism was ringing round Tate Britain when I bumped into Denis Healey there a few days earlier. Labour's great old bruiser, still in cheery form, had come to see a Hockney in the Sixties exhibition. He reminded me that an early BBC interview with the painter had caused much consternation.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

A Londoner's Diary ; Bbc Political Editor Andrew Marr On Gang Warfare in Brighton, and Hockney's Gentle Bid to End Bossiness

Hockney had just met and drawn WH Auden, in his fissure-faced grandeur. What, asked the interviewer, had Mr Hockney made of Mr Auden, this nation's greatest modern poet? 'Well,' replied Hockney, 'I thought, if his...

See the full content of this document

---