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from "The World, The Flesh and Myself" by Michael Davidson, 1962















"One early morning, covered with the dirt of war, I rushed to the Savoy for a sumptuous bath. A Genymede of a page-boy took me up and, crazily, I told him to come back in 20 minutes to dry me.

In 20 minutes there was a knock at the door; wrapped in a towel, quivering with excitement, I opened it. A sleek personage in a tail-coat stood there: 'You are aware, sir, that we have in-house detectives in the hotel...?' In a panic I pulled a five-pound note out of my pocket and dumbly held it out; he took it and went sleekly."







"He must have been the first person I knew who had been to prison; certainly for the offence which I was then repeatedly committing with rhapsodical fervour. The glamour of his imprisonment of course fortified the fascination he anyhow had for me."