(Vladimir Nabokov is said to have admired My Past and
Thoughts so much that he tried retrospectively to alter its title to
something less pompous-sounding.)
EDNOTE. I don't know where the
formidable Mr. Hitchens got his bit of Nabokoviana from. Can anyone provide the
source? Stoppard, of course, is, like VN, a Slav who writes
brilliant English prose.
A possible series of links: Hitchens
from his (former?) friend Martin Amis, from Vera Nabokov?