John Carey wrote of Diana Cooper that men clamoured around her
like gulls over a council rubbish tip  In Spoleto, where I was
to give a poetry reading as part of the festival, an old friend,
with a perfectly straight face, mendaciously announced that my
literary career began as a barber in the army. I read the eight
or so poems of mine that happen to be translated into Italian.
Perversely, my translators have chosen my most English poems
with references to cricket and the War of Jenkins' Ear. I could
explain, but it would take longer than my allotted 20 minutes.
Geordie Greig, the editor of Tatler, and Jessica Rawson, warden
of Merton College, gave a retirement dinner for John Carey. The
14 guests were a mixture of academics and writers. As Merton
professor of English, Carey succeeded the formidable Helen
Gardner and felt modestly that it would be difficult to fill her
shoes - "an opinion Dame Helen shared". His wife remembered,
when he was offered the post, that he put down the phone,
saying: "They don't kn