Inside Trader (Trader Faulkner, Scribe)

Born in Sydney—to a Ballets Russes ballerina improbably named Sheila and a larrikin silent-movie actor, John—young Ronald Faulkner earned his sobriquet after trading back his lost marbles for a whiff of his dad’s bathtub whisky. Now 86, Trader has hobnobbed for decades with the giants of the British stage, radio, TV and Hollywood screen, but began his career in wartime Sydney, where he was directed by Peter ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore’ Finch. Shipping out to London in 1946, Trader subsequently trod the boards with Gielgud and Olivier, kissed Vivien Leigh daily—twice if there was a matinee—and stepped into the shoes, if not the fur-lined codpiece, of Richard Burton. But after a decade of steadily making his name, Trader’s brilliant career went bung when stagecraft became passé and the concept of the untutored Angry Young Man became ‘in’. Happily, there are second acts, and Trader’s was borne out of the flamenco. He learned Spanish and travelled Spain, which eventually led to his later-life’s achievement: the translation of Spanish poet Lorca for the stage, for which Trader was decorated by the King of Spain. Pithy and sharp but without bitchiness, this book has theatrical anecdotes aplenty and displays a range from hilarious to melancholic.

Michael Kitson is an academic and bookseller at the Sun Bookshop

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Category: Reviews