Ronald Harwood

Ronald Harwood’s novels include George Washington September Sir! and The Girl in Melanie Klein; among his many plays are The Dresser, Taking Sides and Collaboration. As a screenwriter he won an Academy Award in 2003 for The Pianist and a BAFTA in 2008 for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. A former President of International PEN and Chairman of the Royal Society of Literature, he was knighted in June 2010. In this extract from his autobiography, he describes arriving in England from South Africa at the age of seventeen.

Photograph © LUCINDA DOUGLAS-MENZIES 2003