William Donaldson

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For other people named William Donaldson, see William Donaldson (disambiguation).

William Donaldson
The Henry Root Letters
Spouse
  • Sonia Avory
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1957, divorced)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1968, divorced)​
  • Cherry Hatrick
    ​
    (m. 1986)​
Children1

Charles William Donaldson (4 January 1935 – 22 June 2005

playboy and, under the pseudonym of Henry Root, author of The Henry Root Letters
.

Life and career

Son of Charles Glen Donaldson (1904–1956) and Elizabeth (née Stockley; d. 1955),

Sub-Lieutenant
.

On his return to civilian life, Donaldson became associated with the set surrounding

The Bed-Sitting Room (1963). The pair earned a weekly £2,000 from Beyond the Fringe while the performers Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller
were earning only £75.

In 1968, Donaldson received a substantial inheritance, and in 1971 he left Britain for Ibiza, where he imprudently spent his last £2,000 on a glass-bottomed boat.[5] Before long he was scavenging for food on the beach. Returning to London, he found refuge with a former girlfriend who was running a brothel on the Fulham Road.[1] His experiences there formed the basis of his first novel, Both the Ladies and the Gentlemen (1975).

Donaldson's fictional letter-writer Henry Root made him a final fortune. Root's satirical lampooning of the rich, famous, and influential was published in the books:

  • The Henry Root Letters (1980) – with letters to, among others, famous football clubs, publishers, chief constables,
    First Sea Lord
    (volunteering his services owing to the "imminent outbreak of hostilities with the Soviets" and concluding "I'm on red alert here and can leave for my ship at the drop of a bollard")
  • The Further Letters of Henry Root (1980)
  • Henry Root's World of Knowledge (1982)
  • Henry Root's A-Z of Women: "The Definitive Guide" (1985)
  • The Soap Letters (1988)
  • Root into Europe (1992)
  • Root about Britain (1994)

Donaldson lived at 139 Elm Park Mansions on Park Walk, Chelsea, London SW10, from which address all the Root letters were sent. Nearby, The Henry Root restaurant has been established in his memory.[6]

Donaldson's biographical survey of roguish Britons through the ages, Brewer's Rogues, Villains and Eccentrics (2002), has been described as "a breathtaking triumph of misdirected scholarship".[4]

Donaldson also wrote novels including the semi-autobiographical 'Is This Allowed'.[7] In the 1990s he also had a column in The Independent.[8]

The phenomenal success of the Henry Root books, especially the first, enabled Donaldson to resume his earlier chaotic lifestyle, and in the mid-1980s he began using crack cocaine.[9] He continued its use for more than a decade, but insisted he was not addicted.[4]

Donaldson also wrote under other names, including Dr Kit Bryson, Jean-Luc Legris, and Selina Fitzherbert (who "together" wrote The Complete Naff Guide (1983) and other related books; Donaldson's co-author was Simon Carr, who would write an obituary of Donaldson for The Independent),[10] Talbot Church, and Liz Reed.[11]

Personal life

Donaldson married Sonia Avory in 1957 and they had a son named Charlie. He left her for Jacki Ellis, then the wife of

Swinging London. He later remembered that "sex, whether in company or not, has been the only department in life in which I have demanded from anyone taking part the very highest standards of seriousness."[4] Donaldson's third marriage, in 1986, was to Cherry Hatrick, who survived him; they separated six months after their marriage.[4][14]

References

  1. ^ a b c "William Donaldson – Womanising satirist and novelist who squandered several fortunes on wild living". The Times. London. 27 June 2005.
  2. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/95873. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ISBN 978-1-4464-9174-4
    .
  4. ^ a b c d e Hawtree, Christopher (25 June 2005). "Guardian Obituary". The Guardian. London.
  5. ^ "William Donaldson's Week: My old chums Tony and Dave". The Independent. 12 February 1994. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  6. ^ "The Henry Root". Archived from the original on 25 June 2011.
  7. ^ "Is This Allowed?". www.goodreads.com.
  8. ^ Hawtree, Christopher (24 June 2005). "Obituary: William Donaldson" – via www.theguardian.com.
  9. ^ Terence Blacker, 'Donaldson, (Charles) William [Henry Root] (1935–2005)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2009; online edn, Jan 2011
  10. ^ You Cannot Live As I Have Lived and Not End Up Like This: The thoroughly disgraceful life and times of Willie Donaldson, Terence Blacker, Ebury Press, 2007, pp. 6, 204, 207
  11. ^ June 22, 2005, January 4, 1935–. "William Donaldson" – via www.thetimes.co.uk.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ O'Hagan, Sean (13 April 2008). "When rock chicks ruled". The Guardian. London.
  13. ^ Terence Blacker, 'Donaldson, (Charles) William [Henry Root] (1935–2005)', in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2009)
  14. ^ "William Donaldson". 26 June 2005 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.

Further reading

External links
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