I was sad to see the demise of John Updike yesterday. Not only was he a great author, but to me he will always be a great Andre Deutsch author. I recall a tale being told about the author photograph on the back of his books in the 1980s. Andre took this photograph, and John Updike always referred to it as his “toothache photo” as he had either been or was about to go to the dentist. As is common, the photograph had the credit line of the photographer – Andre Deutsch immediately next to the photo. Rumour has it that on more than one occasion Andre was told that he ‘didn’t look like his photo at all’ and that one bright spark asked how he found time to write all those books and run a publishing company too. I kid you not.
