Everyman

Hours by the Window (1984x8)

Air date: Feb 19, 1984

A portrait of Arthur Koestler written and presented by Brian Inghs 'I wish my friends to know that I am leaving their company in a peaceful frame of mind, with some timid hopes for a depersonalised after-life ... beyond our comprehension. This "oceanic feeling" has often sustained me at difficult moments, and does so now'. A year ago one of the great writers of our time - ARTHUR KOESTLER - committed suicide in a pact with his wife Cynthia. This was the end of an adventurous life, in which he took up many of the challenges of our century: he was a Zionist pioneer in Palestine, then a Communist agent; he was sentenced to death in Franco's Spain, and only just escaped the Nazis. He was never satisfied for long with the easy answers offered by dogmatic faiths - in politics, religion or science. BRIAN INGLIS , writer and friend of Koestler, traces his life's journey and explains why he believes it is of vital significance to us all.