The Richard Burton Diaries (6 page)

16 Richard and Elizabeth bought their yacht (renamed the
Kalizma
) in July 1967. They are pictured here the following month off the Capo Caccia peninsula, Sardinia, during the filming of
Boom!
Richard revelled in the peace and isolation he found on his ‘second home’.

17 Richard was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Henry VIII in
Anne of the Thousand Days
, but it was not a role he enjoyed – ‘Anybody can play Henry VIII . . . even Robert Shaw’.

18 Richard and Elizabeth arrive at Heathrow Airport, London, in September 1970, prior to Richard filming
Villain
. He is carrying his new Olivetti typewriter, complete with Welsh flag sticker (see diary entry for 23 May 1970).

19 By 1974 Richard was drinking very heavily and his marriage to Elizabeth was in desperate trouble. Here he is in California during the filming of
The Klansman
– one of his less successful screen appearances – where he met Jeanne Bell, who would share his life in 1975.

20 It's Perrier water in the ice bucket and Richard is enjoying his status as an honorary fellow at St Peter's College, Oxford. Richard had taken a wartime course in English at Exeter College, but had not returned to the university to complete a degree.

21 Richard met Susan (Suzy) Hunt in Switzerland early in 1976. Before August was out they were married in Arlington, Virginia, after Burton's successful return to Broadway in
Equus
.

22 Grenfell ‘Gren’ Jones drew for the
Western Mail
and
South Wales Echo
. He won the first of four awards for the best provincial cartoonist in Britain in 1983, the year that Richard was given a diary complete with ‘Gren’ cartoons, one of which took him as its subject.

23 Richard's daughter Kate was herself a successful actress by the time
Private Lives
(starring Richard and Elizabeth) opened in New York in May 1983.

24 Richard and Sally Hay married in Las Vegas in July 1983. Their marriage would last only thirteen months, but it brought Richard great stability and comfort.

25 Richard's passion for reading was life-long: here he is enjoying sunshine and scholarship at his home in Céligny.

26 ‘Looking forward to Switzerland and books and peace.’ Richard's library, Céligny.

My primary thanks go to Sally Burton, whose gift of the diaries to Swansea University made this publication possible and who has taken a very keen and sympathetic interest in the project at every stage of its development. Kate Burton has also been wonderfully supportive, and I am very grateful to her for her enthusiasm and understanding. Other family members whose help has been vital to the work's completion include Graham Jenkins, Hilary Jenkins and Christopher Wilding.

The acquisition of the diaries and of the wider collection of Burton papers by Swansea University would not have been possible without the sustained commitment of Dr Hywel Francis, MP for Aberavon, and of Professor Richard B. Davies, Vice-Chancellor of Swansea University. Key roles have also been played by Professors Noel Thompson, John Spurr, Kevin Williams, M. Wynn Thomas OBE, all of the university's College of Arts and Humanities, and Professor Helen Fulton (now of the University of York). Jasmine Donahaye and Diane Green carried out some critical early work on the diaries, and Dr Louise Miskell and Dr Martin Johnes, friends in the Department of History and Classics, have said and done the right things at the right times to keep the whole show on the road. I am also very grateful to Dr Elaine Canning, Helen Baldwin and Sara Robb of the Research Institute for Arts and Humanities with whom I have worked closely in the final stages.

It is difficult to overstate the vital part that has been played and will continue to be played in the entire Richard Burton enterprise at Swansea by colleagues in the university's library and archives. Chris West and Kevin Daniels have provided encouragement and backing from the top. Elisabeth Bennett, the university archivist, has been deeply involved in all things Burton from the very beginning and continues to provide crucial advice and support at every juncture, ably supported by Sue Thomas. Dr Katrina Legg undertook the transcription of the diaries and carried it out with a painstaking professionalism that I suspect I could not, even with unlimited time, have matched. Her labours represent the solid foundation on which so much else rests. I also thank Lee Fisher and Emyr Lewis of the university's solicitors Morgan Cole for their legal expertise, Gordon Andrews and Emma Wilcox of Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council, Bethan Jones and Judith Winnan of BBC Cymru Wales, and Catrin Brace of the Department of the First Minister of the Welsh Government in New York.