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William Donaldson was born in Fife, Scotland in early 1700's and died in 1782. He was married about 1750 in New York City to Mary Bradley.
William Donaldson reveals all in a frank and often scurrilous memoir where past and present collide in a hilarious vision of his extraordinary life. The author charts his course from his public school childhood, through production of the celebrated 1960s satire Beyond the Fringe, a riotous lifestyle in the company of pop stars, actors, models, and sundry celebs—sometimes in a brothel in which he lived for a time in Chelsea—literary success and on into his drug-fuelled slide into bankruptcy and lost love in the alleged present. Many will know Willie Donaldson and his friends behaving badly from his long-time column in the Independent. He writes in the tradition of Nabokov's "unreliable narrator," with his insightful contemplations on the memoir's often-scandalous indiscretions about—to list just a few—page-three girls, the aristocracy, former girlfriends Sarah Miles and Carly Simon, Peter Cook, Kenneth Tynan, drug dealers, and the criminal fraternity—even the rightful King of Spain. Moralist as well as mischief-maker, Donaldson writes with candor, wit, and style.
William Mills Donaldson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 14, 1840, second son of William Donaldson and Ann Mills Donaldson.
A browsable and addictive collection of pen-portraits of 1500 extraordinary characters from British and Irish history
The final book by the late, great Willie Donaldson is an impressive line-up of nefarious and idiosyncratic characters past and present. Its encyclopedic entries provide an eyebrow-raising guide to the extraordinary lives of roguish Britons from Emma Hamilton to Ozzy Osbourne, Margaret "Mother" Clap to the Duke of Edinburgh.
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Though born into privilege and inheriting a fortune, Willie Donaldson ended up dying alone in a seedy rented flat, his computer still logged on to a lesbian porn site. To some, he had been one of the great, under-rated comic writers of our time, and to others, a dangerous force of corruption and decadence. His achievements were significant - he published Sylvia Plath while still at Cambridge, as a producer in the Sixties he staged Beyond the Fringe, and he was later to write the celebrated Henry Root Letters - but not as impressive as his reckless talent for self-destruction. The impresario became a serial bankrupt. The man about town, who had lived with Sarah Miles and been engaged to Carly...
Death is inevitable, and yet the vast majority of the developed world seems to want to ignore this fact and avoid the sad inevitability. However, death is an inevitability, and trying to avoid talking about it is a mistake. Estimated Time of Departure takes readers on a journey of one man and his family having these discussions and how powerfully loving and revealing they were. In this funny, moving, poignant memoir, William Donaldson tells the story of how he talked with his parents over an extended period about their end-of-life thoughts and philosophy. He shares the sad, funny, maddening, sweet, and rewarding sides of this journey and makes a compelling and impassioned plea to readers to not miss this opportunity. They were not without sadness and challenges, but by virtue of talking and exploring the topic, the family came closer together and the inevitable passing became, while still sad, a cathartic, deeply rewarding event. Estimated Time of Departure was written to give readers the courage to have these discussions and shows that hope, love, and reverence can be seen by having them.