Saturday 4 June 2011

FAREWELL JOSEPHINE HART her famous saying I love is "Damaged people are dangerous, they know they can survive"


I met Josephine and Maurice Saatchi in the early 1990's, through Charles and Kay Saatchi who were then married, geniuses marry geniuses, both were.  They gave wonderful lunches in the country and the South of France in their stunning house overlooking the sea, which were always full of intellectual people from Helmut Newton and his wife, to Lord and Lady Loyd Webber.  She was always stylish in her black and white Comme des Garcons suits, with a roaring and wonderful sense of humour, she had a cleverness that most people would envy.
I fell in love with her book "Damage" which affected me so much that I underlined all it's amazing passages. I remember that she said to me that she had the character of a book when when had found the last line. I have not read her other books because I  wanted to stay in love with that one.  Certain books ingrain themselves into me and I don't want to tarnish that feeling.
Her other brilliance was encouraging people to love poetry with readings.  The London Library was packed out always full of fans of the  written word.  There was star quality about Josephine, I always felt a little bit stupid next to her, not because she made me feel uncomfortable, on the contrary, but because her brain was so quick and she had authority. Josephine you will be very missed.

No comments: