YOU’VE READ THE BOOK…

…Now read it in Peter’s own words

Additionally, I’ve had a great many questions from fans around the world which I’ve done my utmost to respond to either personally, or via this website. One of the most frequent queries has been, how much of Peter’s own writings did I rely on in the book? The fact is that I used quite a large amount of Peter’s personal writing throughout the work, which included letters and diary entries etc.

Around the tail-end of 2013, Peter and I began working on what he hoped would be his autobiography. His way of working was to write the text longhand in a notebook, and then I’d type it up for him on my computer. What appears for the most part in Chapters One and Two of ‘A Life Amongst Strangers’ come almost directly for him, although when you read what he’s written (see below), you’ll doubtless understand why much of it needed editing, and also why I was compelled to temper at least some parts of his work – not least because it was quite graphic in parts. Certainly, Peter had a unique way of telling a tale – complete with colourful language!

Below are the drafts I used in the opening two chapters of ‘A Life Amongst Strangers’, which those of you who have read it will recognise, I’m sure:

This page begins in France, where Peter had gone to recover from his time in the Civil Assembly Centre in Shanghai during World War II. Here he mentions waking to find the American girl he’d picked up the night before still in his hotel room the morning after, and of her looking completely different from when he first met her, as she was now wearing no make-up.

He then transfers to the village of Vergèze and La Maison de Genvière where he encounters the lovely Rosameurde and immediately “fell in love with her”. He says that he was surprised “now” at being so attracted to her as, “I’m usually a tit man and Rosameurde’s were practically invisible.“

Another draft of the same scene: Here, Peter again mentions the American girl he’d spent the night with, and the reason he was wearing such unconventional underwear: “Wearing the Speedo swimming trunks I’d grabbed in desperation to replace the Kalvin Kleins* that were unwearable after what I’d done to the American girl in my previous hotel.”

*He, of course, wouldn’t have been wearing Kalvin Klein’s (sic) back then!

In this slightly revised section, he says that he’d been forced to wear a belt with his shorts because they were too big for him, but even then he was left with part of his backside showing, which he says made him look like “The proverbial British builder*” and, “resulting on the other side exposing my erection above the belt buckle which she [Rosameurde] could see sticking out.”

He goes on to describe the beautiful Rosameurde flirting with him as she picks up his heavy luggage: “She let go of the suitcase and rose up very close to me, both hands now fumbling with the belt clasp, that they soon released.” It was the ring of the phone that was to intrude on the moment.

A second draft of his first meeting with Rosameurde. He says: “I looked down and caught the shine in her eyes [that were] directed at my crotch. If they could have spoken [they would have told me] to unbutton my flies… somewhere a telephone was ringing, as she was on my first button. She dropped the heavy bag and ran towards the phone.”

He then writes: “Rosameurde noticed the bulge immediately in my shorts and her surprise followed an immediate welcoming smile before she bend over and deliberately rubbed her head against me…”

Peter now goes on to describe how he met and married his wife, Dorinda Stevens:

Further to discussing Rosameurde (above), Peter says of Dorinda, “She too was beautiful and I got her…” He continues with: “But for her, I was her knight in shining armour and she was the princess in the tower. In reality, we were still kids…”

In this section, Peter makes mention of the ball that he, Dorinda and some mutual friends [fellow actors] attended at Southampton town hall. A few days later, he’d gone back to the town hall to collect a Social Security payment. He describes the “disapproving” clerk behind “the same table where I’d f****d Dorinda for the first time,” and where he’d carved his initials into the wood with a penknife.

In this part, Peter tells of his and his wife’s desperation to conceive, and of them both having fertility tests – she at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, and he at a clinic in Marylebone. He was found to be fine but, sadly, Dorinda was not.

He goes on to describe his visit to the fertility clinic, and how he’d told the attendant nurse who he describes as “twice the size” of him” that he needed help in producing a sample: “I can’t just do it like that!” Said nurse had responded with, “Don’t you get sassy with me!” “I didn’t mean you,” he’d gulped, adding, “Have you got any pictures that might help?”

He now describes how he arrived home from 9 months in Spain filming ‘Alexander the Great‘, to find that Dorinda had been unfaithful to him. He says that all manner of thoughts were flashing through his head, and that it had crossed his mind that something had been going on between his wife and their female lodger: “A least it isn’t a guy,” he thought. “Then finally shutting up shop with my chauvinist pig fantasy of having two women at the same time, one of them a dyke. My mind had become a cesspit.”

On this page, Peter admits to a somewhat bizarre reaction he had to discovering his wife’s infidelity; he decides to cook breakfast! He even asks how she and her male lover would like their eggs cooked – “Flipped or sunny-side up?”

The supposed homosexual relationship with Alan Bates:

It has been suggested by American author, Donald Spoto in his 2008 book, ‘Otherwise Engaged: The Life of Alan Bates’, that Peter and Bates had lived together “as a couple” at 1, Earls Terrace, London W8 for over a decade (1956-1966). In actual fact, Peter only took out a lease on the aforementioned flat in 1958 (see here) and Bates only appears on the Electoral Roll as living at this address from 1960.

Here Peter explains in his own hand the nature of his “relationship” with Bates, and the reason for them moving into the flat in Kensington.

The above reads: “Alan and I shared a flat and a cottage in Kent for over six years, We were both original members of the Royal Court. He lived in a Victorian flat in Battersea with the likes of Peter O’Toole, Brian Bedford who is now the resident director at the Stratford-Upon-Avon company in Toronto, Canada. We were both looking for a flat so I said we should share one to cut down on costs. I was doing The Salt Land at Pinewood, a film for TV (if you could get it I would be overjoyed) by Peter Schaffer whose dad owned the Terrace* and suggested the Garden Flat was available. We clapped hands and jumped in. The rental of the cottage came first as did the cost of working and living in hotels [in London] when either of us were working, so the flat was a blessing. In practice as it turned out that when I was working [in the West End] I would have the flat, or if he was working, vice versa. If we were both working at the same time there was a divan bed in what is now the kitchen so it was a perfect set up”.

*Earls Terrace, London W8 where Peter lived from 1958 until his death in 2018.

Peter’s response to the J.G. Ballard question

For many years, author and satirist, J.G. Ballard, claimed to have known Peter while the two of them were internees at Lunghua Civil Assembly Centre near Shanghai during World War II. Peter had always denied this – saying that he had no memory of Ballard at all.

On 7th August 1997, The Guardian newspaper published an interview with the Ballard, which was conducted by journalist, Andrew Billen. The following extract is from that article:

“Ballard is not being pious and he is, anyway, in little danger of being damned as politically correct. In 1973, when he was still thought of as a science fiction writer, he published Crash, a novel celebrating the eroticism of car smashes. The kinkiness of Crash, and of some of his other works (one, featuring the Kennedy assassinations, is called The Atrocity Exhibition), reminds me of a fairly weird interview I once conducted with the actor Peter Wyngarde. The one-time Jason King had talked about his preference for sadistic sex. I am reminded because Wyngarde and Ballard were in the same internment camp. ‘Oh,’ Ballard says when I mention it, ‘I don’t think that sort of thing affects your sex life. I’d have thought it needed to be much more personal than that, but then I don’t have any strain of S&M in me, so I wouldn’t know.’” See the full interview here:

In actual fact, Peter’s exact words were as follows: “I adore flying. I’m trying to improve my tennis and my passion is sex. I think I’ll change that. My passion is sophisticated sex.”

Here, in Peter’s own hand, is his thoughts on the matter:

And, below, about the ‘sadistic sex’ slur:

Other writings that I quote from in the book

All the books seen below are written in Peter’s own hand

Having been the victim of a supposed ‘sex scandal’ himself in 1975, Peter comments on the incident involving actor, Hugh Grant, and LA call girl, Divine Brown (Estella Marie Thompson) in June 1995.

In a 2012 letter to his, then, recently widowed sister-in-law, Peter confirms to having never known his “blood family” (see pages 399-400). The final two paragraph of the letter read: “There never seemed to be enough time to get to know people – Henry and his family included.

Since we have never managed to continue(?) relations, you’ll forgive me if I don’t attend Henry’s funeral.”

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Some of the following are already posted on this website to illustrate other points, but were used in the book:

When Peter and I reconnected back in the early 2010’s, he wrote this in his second letter to me. Prior to our earlier parting, we’d exchanged some rather cutting words, which is what he’s apologising for here. Alas, one idiot who I’d been foolhardy enough to confide in some years ago, has taken one specific word out of many spoken during an heated exchange and used it as an excuse to fuel a vendetta.

The above reads as follows: “Also, I apparently called you some names. I must have been out of my mind, distracted beyond repair! Beyond human approach! Beyond hope! I humbly apologise with all my heart“.

Above and Below: Peter writes about the hurt he has felt at the continued harassment by the press over the incident in 1975.

Peter’s reaction the the (in)famous interview with Princess Diana – ITV, 1995.

Above: A letter to ‘Kenny Grice’* – the reprobate that I speak of in my book.

*As you know, ‘Kenny Grice’ is a pseudonym that I gave to this person as I didn’t wish cause any upset or embarrassment to his family.

Above: A note to me from Peter while he was in France attending to his recently deceased stepbrother’s business affairs. It reads: “Are you getting yourself ready for Costa Ricca (sic). I’m ready when you are – do check the temperatures. I know U don’t like the sun – but I bet it’s better than this cold spell? Not heard from you which worries me. Much love, P xxxxxx”

I was to meet him in France with the intention of flying out to Costa Rica for a holiday.

A letter that reached me the day after the previous one. Here he talks about finding a villa for us to get away for a while.

Here he tells of the Paternity Trial in Vienna during the mid-1970’s (see Page 282 – ‘A Life Amongst Strangers’).

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I was to download every text message that Peter sent to me over a 20 year period, initially as an aide memoire when helping him both professionally and personally with various projects. Ultimately, I was thankfully that I did as I was not only able to use many of them in my book, but they have also become incredibly precious to me on a personal level.

There are several thousand messages which have been printed out and stored in four files. This made it easier for me to look up specific times and dates.

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I have many hundreds of personal letters and other writings which I relied on when writing my book which I will add to this page when time allows.

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Peter Wyngarde: A Life Amongst Strangers is available from the following retailers:

Amazon – Bam! – Blackwells – The Book Depository – Foyles – The Hive – Waterstones – WH Smith – Blackwells etc. Or directly from the publisher.

Click below for further information…

Please note that everything on this website, including the name Peter Wyngarde™ is Trademarked to Tina Wyngarde-Hopkins and Bowington Management.

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