‘But you know if you had written him as a character in a novel, the end would almost inevitably have been the same. He came to a dinner with me a few weeks before he died,’ he says. ‘He looked so sharp and fantastic. Of course, I look at the picture that was taken of us together and think I see a sadness in his eyes that I didn’t notice at the time. But that, of course, is hindsight.’

[Grazia]