Prick Up Your Ears by John Lahr

Prick up your ears, a biography of Joe Orton the sixties playwright of Loot and Entertaining Mr Sloan, is a fabulous book which was made into a glorious film with Gary Oldman as Orton and Alfred Molina as his lover Kenneth Halliwell.

It’s marvellous on the atmosphere of drab fifties Islington as it morphed into the swinging sixties and also great on the competitive relationship between Orton and Halliwell. Orton came to London semi-educated and used Halliwell to acquire cultural knowledge.

Famous for defacing library books during a period of unemployment, the two were sent to prison. This was the making of Orton and destroyed Halliwell who attempted suicide. Orton had the ruthlessness of the true artist and soon eclipsed Halliwell, leaving him behind.

The book charts their claustrophobic dance of a relationship which ended with Halliwell murdering Orton and then committing suicide. A riotously good read.