The Observer, Dec 6, 1987. p.10

'Social animal of manic gusto'.

William Styron’s appreciation of JB.

‘JB was the grandson of a slave. I was a grandson of a slave owner. We were virtually the same age and we were both bemused by our close links to slavery…Disconcertingly homely…he was spellbinding, and he told me more about the frustrations and anguish of being a black man in America than I had known until then, or perhaps wanted to know…’