George's Writing

1986 Guardian article

George was asked to write an article about his boyhood, in connection with the Images of Salford exhibition held at Salford Art Gallery, 1986. This came when he had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's, but the invitation provided a clearcut goal and a firm deadline and he really pulled out all the stops in writing what everyone who read it speaks of as a tour-de-force.

The article was published in The Guardian on Saturday February 15 1986. [You can also download it in a form more suitable for printing (as an Acrobat file)]. Some of the photographs included in this online version of the article have been scanned from the newspaper original and their quality is rather poor.

A few childhood photographs of George and his family have survived including one of the house that he mentions in the article and they can be viewed here.

Picture by Shirley Baker, from the Images of Salford exhibition at Salford Art Gallery, 1986

Draft memoirs

George formed the serious intention to write his memoirs around 1984. He worked at them for many hours, with Elizabeth's valiant support. He was very determined, but it took him some time to get into the swing of writing, and he found it difficult to formulate an overall structure for a book. The pinnacle was probably achieved in the Guardian article, but he worked with great determination and produced some very nice pieces of writing. Some of them were written with great determination, using a keyboard despite the handicap of Parkinson's, in the last months of his life. The first few anecdotes form a rough chronological sequence:

• A boyhood friend
• Reflections on a middleclass boyhood
• First trip to Greece
• The Majestic episode
• The Berlitz experience

And there are some short memoirs and a rough outline that he made in the last two months of his life:

• Various memoirs
• George's outline
• George's introduction

Other articles and interviews

• Article by George on Orson Welles published in Punch May 1960
• 'Hollywood and Back', 1962 BBC talk
• Interview with RB Marriott on acting 1965
• Interview in The Radio Times May 1981 (for 'A Book at Bedtime')
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Return to Greece

In 1983, George did a part in 'Hart to Hart' - an American TV serial. His episodes were mainly shot in Greece. As it happened, this was George's first trip to Greece since 1923. When the TV work was done, Elizabeth persuaded him to go on a quest for his relatives. Here is Elizabeth's description of that quest.

Compiled by George Coulouris jr, December 2000, Updated 2002, corrected June 2003.