Would you buy a book from this man?

Being driven on a rickshaw through the flooded streets of Benares some years ago, I looked up and saw a man staring down from his balcony. It was the most potent stare I have ever encountered. He could have turned me to stone if he wanted. He chose not to, turned around and stepped indoors.

I encountered that fierce stare again some years later. Oddly, it came from myself. My partner James was taking a series of shots for my author photo on a book. Clearly the situation was not threatening, and I was making some effort to look charming. Most of the images though had me looking utterly fearsome. Punters opening to that back flap would have run from the bookstore.

I had a professional portrait taken for my first novel, at a time when it also served for my career as an actor. Someone later said it looked like a picture of a serial killer.

I'm just back from Hampstead Heath, where James has been manfully photographing away to capture me for the cover of Suffer and Survive. The early attempts were weird. In ten shots, I looked like ten different people. Different appearances do seem to wash over me - I can look radiant with health one moment, and some poor sick bastard the next.

Somehow I relaxed. I even managed this smile at one point. Two different portraits I'm quite pleased with have gone off to my editor. The big one above I post it here as another rare one of me that I like.