In today's Times (2 Sept 2008) Ken talks about the reissue of his autobiography A British Picture (the original American title was Altered States).
"let my life flash before you, in paperbackrose is pretty much how I talk over a glass of wine, so you can expect it to be full of embarrassing confidences"
The book was issued 20 years ago so the period between is now covered by Ken, his wife Elise and Melvyn Bragg. Other titles he considered using were In Search of a Soulmate; Four Wives and Eight or Nine Children; Braveheart the Unbankable and The Bio-King.
Ken writes "Have you noticed a certain reticence creeping in? It's not that I'm ashamed of my doings in the past couple of decades. It's just that there are certain episodes that I'd rather forget- episodes that I'm naive enough to believe never happened if they do not appear in print. (Such as the real story of my obsessive American colleague and fan, whom I fictionalised in the book as the curator of my fantasy museum of pornographic exhibits- for which he has never forgiven me. Or the real story of my third marriage, for which I have never forgiven myself.)
...When you write an autobiography, what do you decide to tell? I follow where my magic pen leads me. I'm not given to self-reflection, and it shows. Being a film-maker, I've made most of the book about my movies; not from a critical standpoint, but from what was happening to many of the players behind the camera"
And getting a bit more personal "...I explore my father's thoughtless treatment of my mother, my encounter with a paedophile, my nervous breakdown at sea, my life in tights, my working tĂŞte-Ă -tĂŞtes with certain headstrong and difficult artists, my camaraderie with certain brilliant, loving and great souls; my lawsuits, my unfortunate fires, Big Brother; my secret passions, my disappointments, my terrors, my hopes for true love inspired, shattered and revived again; the broken crockery and the infidelities- they are all there. Enter at your peril and delight"