September 3, 1964 (page 6 of 32).

‘Londoner’s Diary: Different style’

‘I also dropped in on James Baldwin, the incandescent fighter for the Negro cause, who is passing through London after a holiday in Europe. Hunched into a black corduroy suit of vaguely Beatle-like appearance, he was toying with a cup of coffee which made up his 11:30am breakfast. He is slim, sensitive, highly articulate man, very good-humoured, which is a shock after the controlled rage of his writing. He left New York mid-June, just before the race riots. “Something was bound to happen,” he said. “You could smell the trouble. It was like an electrical storm. Put people under that kind of pressure and something always explodes. He likes England, thought he is not sure whether he would like to live here. “You do have a colour bar,” he says flatly. “But the style is difference from the style I am accustomed to. It’s more polite for one thing.”

Article also writes that JB is discussing a ‘possible London production of his play, Blues for Mr. Charlie’ and ‘looking over proofs of a Penguin book, called Nothing Personal’. Quotes JB on the book: “The pictures,” says Mr. Baldwin with a smile, “are fairly kind. The text is not, particularly.”